Uni students urged to learn meningitis symptoms
The message comes ahead of the new academic year starting this autumn
Last updated 21st Aug 2024
Young people across the UK heading off to university this autumn are being urged to learn the signs of meningitis.
The disease can kill within 24 hours in extreme circumstances, but its symptoms can often be confused with a common sickness bug, or even a hangover.
Dr Tom Nutt who is chief executive of Meningitis Now, says people aged 18-24 are one of the most at risk groups.
He said: "The early signs and symptoms are easy to confuse with very common and every day things...because it is things like a headache, it's a fever, vomiting, for example, but as the disease progresses then people may experience...things such as cold hands and cold feat accompanying that fever, they may experience an aversion to bright lights, a stiff neck and in some, but I would stress not all cases, there may be a rash appearing on the skin.
"And that's a rash that doesn't dissipate under pressure such as rolling a glass over it.
"Those symptoms may appear, not in any particular order and it may not be all of them, but it's always accompanied by the rapid deterioration in someone's health."
Ryan's story
In 2010, Ryan Bresnahan from Bristol was an active 16-year-old and very talented hockey player with a bright future.
On the 31st March of that year he began feeling unwell, but his mum Michelle told Cool FM it never occurred to her it could be meningitis.
She said: "Ryan woke up, a very normal Wednesday morning. He had been sick and felt very tired, but nothing that concerned me to leave him and pop out to the shops and get his favourite food and energy drink that we were going to have at home with Charlotte his sister.
"There was nothing that made me concerned to leave him and as a mother I have obviously struggled with that over the years...but there was nothing to cause me concern, it happened so quickly.
"To come back and find the paramedics on our drive saying Ryan had contracted meningitis and was severely ill in that period of time...it was just such a normal time in his life that just flipped and within a few hours we were phoning his friends and family to say that he'd died of meningitis."
Since Ryan's death his parents Michelle and John have created the charity A Life For A Cure, which you can read more about here.
Sophia's story
Sophia Speirs contracted meningitis just last year, while at Manchester University.
Thankfully she survived, in part thanks to the quick action of her mum and flatmates, who sounded the alarm when her condition deteriorated.
She told us: "It all happened over the course of about a day.
"I woke up one morning and I felt very achy and that very quickly progressed to vomiting, constantly vomiting throughout the day. What I thought at the time was a sick bug.
"But by the evening I was just feeling worse and worse, I was feeling sensitive to light, sensitive to my TV screen and the next morning I woke up and felt even worse."
That day Sophia said she was unable to leave her bed, so she sent a message to her mum who tried to call her, but quickly realised Sophia was struggling to speak, or understand what she was saying.
Her mum then alerted university security and Sophia managed to ask her flatmates to call an ambulance, with medics diagnosing her with sepsis as well as meningitis.
"After that I was in hospital for just over two weeks," Sophia said.
"I had heart issues, issues with my joints that were caused by the sepsis...I had to have surgery and I also lost hearing in my right ear."
Learn the symptoms
Thankfully such severe cases are rare, but learning how to spot the disease could be crucial in preventing a similar scenario for yourself or a loved one.
There are also vaccines available against some forms of meningitis.
Tom Nutt said: "They (young people) should have had at school the MenACWY vaccine. That'll help to prevent disease for themselves but also help protect (against) the spread of the bacteria, which might effect others.
"But sadly those same youngsters will also be at risk of so called Men B, which is actually the most common cause of meningitis in that age group, which is why our message today about treating meningitis is two fold really.
"it's about getting those vaccinations when you can, from the NHS, but equally being aware that those vaccinations won't give you complete safety."
You can find out much more about meningitis including a complete list of symptoms, on the Meningitis Now website here.