UK health chiefs are urging students starting university to get vaccinated to protect against deadly meningitis.
Newcomers are at high risk of becoming infected with this potentially deadly infection as they tend to mix closely with many new people.
In a statement issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), experts warn that every year students “fall seriously ill and some die tragically” from this preventable disease.
In England, all students are offered the meningitis vaccine, called MenACWY, in year nine or year ten, protecting them against four different types of meningococcal bacteria that can cause meningitis and septicaemia.
Experts say meningitis cases usually spike around September, coinciding with the start of the new academic year.
Bacterial meningitis, which requires urgent hospital treatment, affects the membranes of the spinal cord and brain.
Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening blood infection, while meningitis means that pathogens have entered the protective membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
Cases more than doubled in early 2020 and late 2021, rising from 80 to 205. However, experts say the exceptionally low numbers in 2020 were due to the pandemic.
Experts are urging young people to make sure they are up to date with their free NHS vaccinations for children and teenagers against meningitis, measles and HPV before the start of the new academic year.
“We usually see increases in meningococcal meningitis cases after the university term starts in September,” said Dr Shamez Ladhani, consultant epidemiologist at UKHSA.
‘New and returning students from around the country and abroad meeting and mixing means infection spreads easily, with some students becoming seriously ill and, tragically, in some cases, we are seeing deaths.
‘I urge young people starting or returning to university to check they are up to date with their MenACWY, HPV and MMR vaccinations and to contact their GP if they are unsure.’
Mothers who have lost their children to meningitis are also urging students to get vaccinated.
Lauren Sandell died when she was 18 during her freshman year of college in 2016 after contracting meningitis.
Her mother, Sharon Sandell, from Woodford Green in London, said: ‘Lauren was feeling unwell on a Thursday night during her first year at university.
‘She thought it was due to the stress of adjusting to college.
He returned home on Saturday night saying his legs hurt and he didn’t feel 100 percent.
‘Then on Sunday morning she felt unwell and was visibly shaking.
‘We totally thought it was a panic attack and at no point did I think his life was in danger.
“I will always be grateful that she was home with me when she died, but the experience of witnessing it will stay with me forever.”
An inquest into Lauren’s death in 2018 revealed how her GP had failed to send text messages to remind people to get the MenACWY vaccine.
Another grieving mother, Michelle Bresnahan, whose son Ryan died of meningitis in 2010, also urged college students to check their vaccinations were up to date.
Ms Bresnahan told Sky News her “wonderful boy” had complained of a headache, nausea and fatigue on the morning of his death.
“He was in a good mood, he was supposed to be studying for his GCSEs, so we put that aside for the day and decided we would just get some rest,” she said.
Ms Bresnahan said she went out to get him some food and drink he had asked for to make him feel better, but returned to find a “nightmare”.
“Within 45 minutes I got home and there was an ambulance on our way telling us that Ryan had suspected meningitis and was incredibly unwell,” she said.
‘By lunchtime we were calling our friends and family to tell them that Ryan had died.’
Ryan died five years before the MenACWY vaccine was routinely offered to young people.
Her mother urged people to check if they have contracted the virus and to protect themselves and their loved ones.
“Anyone listening who is going to university or knows someone who is, please check that they have had the vaccine and if not, book it in with your GP today,” she said.
“You still have time to protect yourself against this horrible, horrible disease.”
Lauren Sandell died when she was 18 during her freshman year of college in 2016 after contracting meningitis.
Waking up with a headache and feeling sick, student Ben de Souza attributed his symptoms to a hangover and decided the only thing to do was stay in bed.
In 2019, just eight weeks into his first year at the University of Portsmouth, Ben de Souza, a 19-year-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 I had been partying with friends from the university cricket club.
But as the day progressed, he vomited ten times and felt increasingly sleepy.
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 fighting to survive.
When paramedics arrived, Ben couldn’t even tell them his name. Shortly after arriving at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, he fell unconscious and had to be put on a ventilator.
Although there was no sepsis, the meningitis was causing her brain to swell and begin pressing on her spinal cord, a process called conification, which usually occurs shortly before death.
Desperate, doctors injected saline solution into his body to relieve pressure on his brain, an intervention that undoubtedly saved his life.
But an MRI scan later that day revealed that the stress on his body had caused 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 next few days.