UK health chiefs issue urgent warning about deadly ‘student’ infection

Students starting university are being urged by UK health chiefs to get a vaccine to protect against deadly meningitis.

Freshers are at high risk of becoming infected with the life-threatening infection as they tend to mix closely with lots of new people. 

In a statement issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), experts warn that students get ‘seriously ill, and some tragically die’ from the preventable disease every year. 

In England, all students are offered the meningitis vaccine, called MenACWY, in school years nine or 10, protecting them against four different types of meningococcal bacteria that can cause meningitis and septicaemia.

Experts say cases of meningitis usually increase around September, in line with the start of the new academic year.

Bacterial meningitis, which requires urgent hospital treatment, affects the membranes in the spinal cord and brain

Septicaemia is a life-threatening infection of the blood, while meningitis means pathogens have entered the protective membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord

Cases more than doubled in the beginning of 2020 and the end of 2021, jumping from 80 to 205. However experts say the exceptionally low figures in 2020 was due to the pandemic. 

Experts are urging young people to make sure they are up to date with their free NHS childhood and adolescent vaccines against meningitis, measles and HPV ahead of starting the new academic year.

‘We usually see increases in cases of meningococcal meningitis after the university term starts in September,’ said Dr Shamez Ladhani, consultant epidemiologist at UKHSA. 

‘New and returning students from around the country and overseas coming together and mixing means infection spreads easily, with some students becoming seriously ill and tragically in some cases, we see deaths. 

‘I urge young people starting or returning to university to check they’re up to date on their MenACWY, HPV and MMR jabs and to contact their GP if unsure.’

Mothers who have lost their children to meningitis also urge students to get vaccinated.   

Lauren Sandell died when she was 18 during her first year at university in 2016 after contracting meningitis.

Her mother Sharon Sandell, from Woodford Green in London, said: ‘Lauren was feeling unwell one Thursday evening during her first year in university.

‘She thought it was due to stress from settling into university.

‘She returned home on Saturday evening saying that her legs hurt, and that she wasn’t feeling 100 per cent.

‘Then Sunday morning she got sick and was visibly shaking.

‘We totally thought it was a panic attack and not at any point did I think her life was in danger.

‘I will always be thankful that she was at home with me when she died but the experience of witnessing it will stay with me forever.’

An inquest into Lauren’s death, held in 2018, heard how her GP practice had failed to send out text messages reminding people to get the MenACWY jab.

Another grieving mother, Michelle Bresnahan whose son Ryan died from meningitis in 2010, also urged university students to check their vaccines were up to date.

Ms Bresnahan told Sky News her ‘wonderful boy’ had just complained of a headache, nausea and fatigue on the morning of his death.

‘He was in good spirits, he was supposed to be getting on revising for his GSCEs, so we parked that for the day and decided we’d just have a bit of a rest day,’ she said.

Ms Bresnahan said she popped out to get him some food and drink he had requested to help him feel better only to find a ‘nightmare’ on her return.

‘Within 45 minutes I returned home and there was an ambulance on our drive telling us that Ryan had suspected meningitis and was incredibly poorly,’ she said.

‘By lunchtime we were phoning our friends and family to say Ryan had died.’

Ryan died five years before the MenACWY vaccine was routinely offered to young people.

His mother urged people to check they’ve had it and protect themselves and their loved ones.

‘Anybody listening who is going to university or college, or knows somebody who is, please check you’ve had the vaccination, and if not book it today with your GP,’ she said.

‘There’s still time to protect yourself against this horrible, horrible disease.’

Lauren Sandell died when she was 18 during her first year at university in 2016 after contracting meningitis

Waking up with a pounding head and feeling sick, student Ben de Souza put his symptoms down to a hangover and decided the only thing to do was stay in bed

Just eight weeks into his first year at the University of Portsmouth in 2019, Ben de Souza a 19-yaer-old business student from Burgess Hill, West Sussex contracted a particularly aggressive form of meningitis B, a strain responsible for most cases of bacterial meningitis.

The night before, he’d been clubbing with friends from the university cricket club.

But as the day progressed, he threw up ten times and became increasingly drowsy.

It was a mistake that almost cost Ben his life: 12 hours later, on November 30, 2019, he was rushed to intensive care, where he spent five days battling for survival. 

By the time the paramedics arrived, Ben couldn’t even tell them his name. Shortly after he arrived at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, he became unconscious and had to be put on a ventilator. 

Although there was no sepsis, the meningitis was causing his brain to swell and it was starting to push down on his spinal cord — a process called coning, which usually occurs shortly before death.

Desperate, medics pumped his body with saline to relieve pressure on the brain, an intervention that undoubtedly saved his life.

But an MRI scan later that day revealed that the stress on his body had caused him to have two strokes in the area that controls movement and breathing.

Doctors were unsure if he would survive but, remarkably, he slowly regained consciousness over the following days.