UKHSA working with NHS partners amid meningitis cases in Reading

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is working with local authority and NHS partners after three confirmed cases of meningitis in Reading.

A student who attended Henley College in Oxfordshire has died after contracting the disease.

Two other cases have been identified at two schools across the county border in Berkshire – Reading Blue Coat School and Highdown Secondary School and Sixth Form Centre – and those students are currently receiving treatment.

Close contacts of the students have already been offered antibiotics as a precaution, says the UKHSA, as well as information being shared with students and parents at the affected schools about the signs and symptoms of meningitis.

The UKHSA has reassured that the risk to the wider public remains low.

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Testing on the sample for the first case has confirmed it is a strain of Meningitis B but not the same strain which was identified during an outbreak in Kent earlier this year and saw the deaths of two young people.

Consultant in health protection Dr Rachel Mearkle at the UKHSA said: ‘We understand that many people will be affected by this sad news and would like to offer our condolences to the friends and family of this student.

‘Students and staff will naturally be feeling worried about the likelihood of further cases, however meningococcal meningitis requires very close contact to spread and large outbreaks as we saw in Kent recently, are thankfully rare.

‘We are working closely with partners and have provided public health advice and precautionary antibiotic treatment to close contacts of the cases. Meningococcal disease does not spread easily and the risk to the wider public remains low.’

The government has urged young people to check that they are up to date with their vaccinations, including the MenACWY vaccine which is offered in school years 9 and 10 but remains free on the NHS until the age of 25.

The University of Reading has confirmed there are no reported cases among students but said it will be reminding them to look out for signs and symptoms of the infection.

Director of student services Dr Paddy Woodman said: ‘The university understands from media reports that three cases of meningitis have been reported in the local region, and that one individual has died.

‘I was deeply saddened to hear this news and my thoughts, and those of the whole University community, are with their family and friends.’

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Chair of the National Pharmacy Association Olivier Picard said this is a ‘tragic case’ and pharmacies in Reading are now seeing ‘a very significant increase in demand for vaccination against MenB from worried parents’.

He said: ‘Although pharmacies are now carrying more stock than when we saw the outbreak in Kent, this is having to be managed carefully and it demand could well exceed what pharmacies currently having in supply.

‘The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) should urgently publish its recommendations for MenB vaccinations and whether this should be extended to teenagers and young adults, in light of these recent outbreaks.’

Over 180 nurses and healthcare professionals from Kent Community Health: NHS were involved in a vaccination hub set up to deliver meningitis B (MenB) jabs amid the outbreak in March. Around 11,000 vaccinations were given in the first week with around 13,000 antibiotics dispensed as well.

Since 2015, the MenB vaccine has been available on the NHS as part of the routine childhood immunisations schedule – however this means many aged over 10 have not had it, unless they received it privately from a pharmacy.

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Nursing in Practice interviewed nurses and healthcare professionals involved in the vaccination and antibiotic efforts in Kent earlier this year for the latest Nursing in Practice podcast. Listen here.

Meningitis B vaccinations were also offered to young people in Dorset after three cases of the disease were confirmed in April.