The HSE has confirmed that a single case of bacterial meningitis was reported two weeks ago in University College Cork, but said there is no known link with the outbreak reported in Kent in the UK.<\/p>\n
The UCC case was diagnosed as meningococcal disease, subsequently identified as serotype B, known as MenB, in the week beginning March 9.<\/p>\n
The affected person has recovered well, the HSE said, and no further cases of meningitis have been reported since.<\/p>\n
It comes as the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said the Kent outbreak, which included 29 confirmed or suspected cases of MenB and killed two people, has passed its peak.<\/p>\n
A HSE spokesperson said contact tracing was conducted on the UCC case, and no link to the outbreak in Kent was found.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Antibiotics were prescribed for close contacts, with follow-up MenB vaccinations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no evidence of an increase in invasive meningococcal disease activity in Ireland beyond expected seasonal and background levels,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\n There is also currently no indication of links between any cases in Ireland and the outbreak reported in Kent.\n <\/p>\n
A UCC spokesperson confirmed it had been informed on March 11 that a student had been diagnosed with meningitis.<\/p>\n
In 2026, to date, there have been 12 cases of meningitis in Ireland, with no deaths reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of the 12 cases, nine were MenB.<\/p>\n
In HSE South-West, which covers Cork and Kerry, a total of four confirmed cases of MenB were notified so far in 2026.<\/p>\n
Meningitis can affect people of any age, but it is most common in babies, children, and to a lesser extent teenagers and young adults.<\/p>\n
Symptoms include fever, severe headache, vomiting, rapid breathing, cold hands and feet, drowsiness, or a rash that does not fade under pressure.<\/p>\n
The HSE has warned: \u201cDo not wait for a rash. If someone is ill and getting worse, get medical help immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cCall 112 or 999 for an ambulance immediately or go to your nearest emergency department.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The HSE has confirmed that a single case of bacterial meningitis was reported two weeks ago in University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,4892,2120,61,60],"class_list":["post-361452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-health-news","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361452","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=361452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}