The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has identified Reading Blue Coat school and Highdown secondary school and sixth form centre as the schools attended by pupils receiving treatment in a meningitis outbreak in Berkshire. The outbreak has resulted in the death of a student from Henley college in Oxfordshire.
Close contacts of the affected students have been offered antibiotics as a precaution. Dr Rachel Mearkle, a consultant in health protection, stated that while the news is distressing, meningococcal meningitis requires very close contact to spread, and large outbreaks are rare. The risk to the wider public remains low.
The strain of meningitis B in Berkshire is different from the one that caused a major outbreak in Kent in March, which killed two people and hospitalised over a dozen. The UKHSA is working with partners to provide public health advice and treatment.
Henley college expressed condolences and said it is supporting those affected, following UKHSA guidance. The menB vaccine has been routinely offered to babies since 2015. Professor Andrew Preston from the University of Bath noted that all current cases appear contained to a well-defined social contact group, with no indication of wider transmission.
