Meningitis outbreak kills student, sickens pupils in Reading schools

A student at Henley College in Oxfordshire died after contracting meningitis, and two pupils from Reading Blue Coat School and Highdown Secondary School and Sixth Form Centre were placed under treatment. The UK Health Security Agency identified the cases as meningitis B, a strain distinct from the one that caused a deadly outbreak in Kent earlier this year.

Close contacts at the three institutions received precautionary antibiotics and health officials have issued guidance on warning signs. Authorities emphasized that the disease spreads only through very close contact and the risk to the wider public remains low. Calls for free meningitis B vaccination for young people have been renewed by student representatives.