The infection is not a random airborne hazard. There will not be a national epidemic
Daily Telegraph 17/03/26
The Covid pandemic has left a heightened state of anxiety about any outbreak of infectious disease. This is easily inflated into mass panic, as we are seeing with the outbreak of meningitis among young people in the Canterbury area. Health Secretary Wes Streeting has gone as far as saying it is “unprecedented”. It isn’t.
Yes, meningitis is a potentially serious, and – as we have tragically seen in recent days – even fatal infection, but it is well understood. Responses should be proportionate.
An inflammation of tissues surrounding the brain, it can be caused by several viruses and bacteria. The bacteria are quite common in the UK population – around 10 per cent of us carry them at any one time. That figure is perhaps 20 per cent for teenagers and young people.
These bacteria are transmitted by prolonged or close contact, such as sharing a household or kissing. People living together tend to develop immunity to each other’s bacteria. When they encounter new people, this immunity may not protect them.
Outbreaks often occur among groups of university students who have come together from all over the country and are meeting unfamiliar viruses or bacteria. In some ways it is a much more serious version of “fresher’s flu”. In pre-Covid days, meningitis alert campaigns were often directed at incoming students.
These became less relevant with the availability of a vaccine that covers most of the infectious bacteria, although not the specific type found in Canterbury. About three quarters of all UK teenagers are protected by this vaccine. There is a vaccine for the Men B bacteria associated with the Canterbury outbreak, but it is expensive, protects for a shorter period and has less impact on transmission, so it is currently only offered to babies.
Post-Covid, public health agencies are in an unenviable position. On one hand, they face demands for instant information and intervention to protect us against every conceivable hazard. On the other, they have been accused of over-reaction and creating disproportionate levels of fear. We should step back and think about what is realistically possible.
Initially, meningitis symptoms are hard to distinguish from a hangover or various influenza-like illnesses. Although they are very treatable at this point, it is not easy for sufferers, or those around them, to recognise their condition is abnormal. How many young people wake up with a headache after Thursday’s student night at a local club?
If the symptoms do not resolve, it will take time to get to a GP or an A&E department. In a situation like Canterbury, multiple NHS professionals will see individual patients. These will need to be reported to public health teams. Only then will it become apparent that there is a cluster of cases.
Sensitive detective work is needed to find the common exposure that links these patients. Lab tests are required to define the cause. Antibiotics do not work against viruses. If the cause is bacterial though, there is a choice between a vaccination campaign and mass supply of preventive antibiotics. Nobody wants to give out antibiotics like sweeties because they have their own risks.
While the clock is ticking, public health professionals know this is an outbreak not an epidemic. It must be taken seriously but it is not a novel situation. There are well-established actions that will restrict the risks to a limited group of people and their immediate contacts.
There may be isolated cases elsewhere: a student might have a friend visiting from another university for a few days, who takes the infection back with them. A national alert focussed on young people who were in a specific place at a specific time is useful. But this is not the same as a national panic.
Meningitis is not a random airborne hazard. Whether or not the interventions adopted to interrupt Covid transmission had any benefit, they are irrelevant here. Watching lines of young people wearing ill-fitting masks in the open air – as they have been doing since the weekend – simply demonstrates the general state of post-Covid anxiety.
Nor is it appropriate to blame the owners of the club that seems to have been the main site of transmission for poor ventilation or hygiene failures. This is just where young people happened to gather for a fun night out.
So yes, meningitis is a serious infection that should be taken seriously. It can result in death or permanent disability. We should grieve for anyone who gets the infection and does not recover. We must, though, be careful not to fan the flames of anxiety and distress that linger from the disproportionate responses to Covid-19.
Robert Dingwall is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Nottingham Trent University
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