outbreak of meningitis in Kent<\/a>, near London.<\/p>\nAs of 5pm on Wednesday, the UKHSA said there were a total of 27 cases linked to the outbreak, an increase of seven. Fifteen of the cases are laboratory confirmed, while 12 remain under investigation.<\/p>\n
All confirmed cases linked to the outbreak so far are in young adults and six of the confirmed cases are confirmed to be group B meningococcal disease. <\/p>\n
The UKHSA has advised that the situation is evolving and further cases are possible.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Thursday, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said its national public-health team continues to be in \u201cregular contact\u201d with UK health authorities.<\/p>\n
Dr John Cuddihy, HSE national director for public health, said there is \u201cno evidence of an increase in invasive meningococcal disease activity in Ireland beyond expected seasonal and background levels\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is also currently no indication of links between any cases in Ireland and the outbreak reported in Kent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoutine surveillance in Ireland continues to show that meningococcal disease remains a rare but serious infection, with sporadic cases occurring each year.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2026 to date, there have been 12 cases of meningococcal disease reported in Ireland, with no deaths reported. Of the 12 cases, nine were type B. <\/p>\n
Last year there were 60 meningococcal cases reported in Ireland, of which 38 were the B strain. <\/p>\n
The disease can cause serious diseases including meningitis (inflammation of the lining of the brain) and septicaemia (blood poisoning). <\/p>\n
Cuddihy said: \u201cMeningococcal disease can affect people of any age, but it is most common in babies, young children and to a lesser, extent teenagers and young adults. In countries with climates like Ireland, cases tend to rise during the winter and early spring months.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndividuals with meningococcal disease can deteriorate rapidly. Symptoms include fever, severe headache, vomiting, rapid breathing, cold hands and feet, drowsiness, or a rash that doesn\u2019t fade under pressure. Do not wait for a rash.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organisation advises anyone who is ill and getting worse to get medical help immediately.<\/p>\n
Dr Lucy Jessop, director of the HSE\u2019s National Immunisation Office, said the MenB vaccine has been part of the free national childhood immunisation schedule for babies born from October 2016 onwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is given over three doses at two, four and 12 months,\u201c she said. \u201dMeningococcal type B disease is most common in babies under the age of one year old and the scheduling of the administration of the vaccine under the immunisation programme takes account of this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is currently no catch-up Men B vaccine programme for older children. Men C vaccine is also offered to babies as part of the primary childhood immunisation programme.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There has been no increased activity of meningococcal disease in Ireland, the health service has said, following a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,2120,61,60,1577],"class_list":["post-354396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}