Any mention of meningitis makes parents of children in their twenties shudder.
It was a killer and we were fearful to the core with any high temperature and fever.
We were well-practised in the glass test, checking any rash by rolling a glass over the skin – thanks, Dr Hilary Jones, for that public health gem.
If the rash didn’t disappear, seek urgent medical help.
We were super vigilant, terrified of the worst.
The issue with bacterial meningitis, especially among children and young people, is not just how contagious it is, but how fast, virulent, and potentially devastating it can be.
Now it’s back with a vengeance; a different strain—MenB—that can become life-threatening within hours, leading to sepsis, limb loss, brain damage, or death even in healthy people.
About one in ten cases can be fatal.
Survivors can be left with lifelong complications.
Young people are particularly vulnerable—meningitis attacks clusters like universities and schools—and this group missed the routine MenB vaccination introduced to children born after 2015, so huge numbers of young people are unprotected.
And young people travel, home from Kent, to visit friends in London, to parties in Sussex, taking potential infection with them.
Containing disease is impossible.
Vaccines have been rushed to Kent.
Surges in demand cause local shortages and vulnerability that spreads like sorry, but the plague, within days and were described as “explosive” and unusual.
We should all be extremely worried.
This outbreak shines a light on the worrying lack of investment in public health and medical research, and how important vaccination programmes are to build up immunity in populations.
The reactive approach—waiting until action is needed—is too late.
Public health investment has been in decline since Covid—you’d think that would have taught us a lesson in being behind the curve.
All of the above is seriously lacking.
With recent measles outbreaks because parents are not immunising their children—the height of irresponsibility—public health must be a priority.
Although not a pandemic threat like Covid, Meningitis B is a serious risk to public health.
It hasn’t come from nowhere.
Meningitis has been an ongoing public health concern for decades, with the adoption of the MenC vaccine in 1999 making dramatic strides, then further vaccine protection against strains ACWY.
Now it is MenB, with vaccinations only protecting the under 12s, leaving huge swathes of the most vulnerable age groups in the most high-risk settings, universities, and colleges, unprotected.
Early medical intervention is crucial to reduce the risks of long-term illness including nerve damage or even death, so awareness is critical.
In laboratories across the world, scientists are being severely hampered in medical research programmes because of a lack of funding.
Research is expensive—and slow.
Developing new treatments can take 10–15 years and cost billions, so it doesn’t happen.
It’s essential for society but financially uncertain and often politically invisible until a crisis.
We saw this in the COVID-19 pandemic, with funding surging when the urgency became undeniable.
Today’s situation proves public health and medical research needs investment.
And get your children immunised against everything available.
There really is no excuse.
Is crossbreed obsession ending?
I’m writing this on a working break in Aldeburgh, where my daily walks have been a joy of smiling at the plethora of dogs parading along the prom.
Cockapoos—a cocker spaniel and poodle cross—are everywhere.
The teddy bear non-shedding cutie has been lauded as the perfect family dog and its appearance gives an aura of warmth and affection.
But is the epidemic about to end?
Its apparent perfection—for which owners pay eye-watering prices—is under question in a study by the Royal Veterinary College that says, far from being better behaved and more trainable than their purebreds, they are more troublesome.
In data from more than 9,000 UK dogs, comparing three popular poodle-crosses—cockapoos, cavapoos (Cavalier King Charles spaniel and poodle), and labradoodles (labrador retriever and poodle) with their respective parent breeds cocker spaniels and poodles, cockapoos scored worse, with owners reporting higher levels of aggression towards people and other dogs, greater fearfulness—including of noises and unfamiliar situations—and more distress when left alone and being more excitable.
For trainability cockapoos performed worse than cocker spaniels and no better than poodles.
Cavapoos also performed worse than their parent breeds on most behavioural measures.
It just goes to show you can’t breed perfection, and perhaps the crossbreed obsession is coming to an end.
Hidden dangers?
For us of a certain age talcum powder—or baby powder, as it was known from the famous Johnson & Johnson—was a bathroom staple.
The smell is reminiscent of childhood and adolescence.
But the white powder is behind a group legal claim by women who allege they developed cancer after using asbestos-contaminated talcum powder.
The claimants in Scotland allege Johnson & Johnson, alleging the firm knew in the 1960s that its mineral-based talcum powder contained hazardous fibres, but never issued warnings on the packaging.
The women are long-term users of the product and say it led to them contracting mesothelioma, ovarian, and other cancers of the female reproductive system.
The claim mirrors similar legal actions that are already before courts around the world.
With most apparently innocent of products connected to deadly health issues, we must wonder how vapes will be viewed in another 40 years.
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