Key Summary
- Health officials in Northern Ireland said that the suspected case of meningococcal disease is not related to the ongoing outbreak in England.
- Dr Jillian Johnston said the patient, a student from Belfast, is in hospital.
- It is not confirmed if the patient has meningitis.
Public Health Agency (PHA) in Northern Ireland has reassured parents that a suspected case of a disease that can cause meningitis is not related to the ongoing outbreak in England.
The suspected case of meningococcal disease was detected in a student at Bloomfield Collegiate School in Belfast, BBC reports.
Dr Jillian Johnston of the PHA confirmed the individual is currently in the hospital but it is not confirmed whether the student has meningitis.
Those living in the patient’s household have been offered antibiotics.
Meningococcal disease can lead to meningitis - a serious bacterial infection affecting the brain - or general septicaemia (blood poisoning).
The PHA said there was no increased risk to the population in Northern Ireland.
Johnston said on a radio show that this is not in any way related to what is happening in England.
The UKHSA has announced a targeted vaccination programme for students at the University of Kent in Canterbury, and 700 doses of antibiotics have been given out.
Health secretary Wes Streeting has warned that meningitis cases in Kent may continue to increase and the pace and spread of the disease has been “unprecedented”.
UKHSA chief executive Susan Hopkins said the outbreak "looks like a super-spreader" event with "ongoing spread" through universities' halls of residence.
"There will have been some parties particularly around this, so there will have been lots of social mixing," she added.
She stated that she could not yet say where the initial infection originated, how it entered the cohort, or why it had created such an explosive amount of infections.
