![\"Soldier](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AQ7GWBR5AZOSVA332TF5TSTWIQ.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Minister](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ANGLHLE2O5OTNG5VVXNFA3JD64.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe UKHSA said information has been shared with parent and carers on the signs and symptoms of menB.<\/p>\n
Dr Rachel Mearkle, consultant in health protection, said:\u00a0\u201cA fourth case of meningococcal disease has been confirmed in Reading.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis fourth case has links with the same wider social network as the other cases, where measures, including antibiotic prophylaxis, have already been implemented.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe individual, who attends Westwood Farm Junior School, is recovering well.<\/p>\n
\u201cInformation has been shared with parents and carers at the school to advise of the signs and symptoms to look out for. All four cases have been confirmed to be meningitis B.<\/p>\n
![\"Lewis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779208515_260_7CEJZJUA4ZMH7JOECNBHWJWLWE.jpg\")
Lewis Waters, a pupil at Henley College, died last week (Zoe Head-Thomas\/PA) <\/p>\n
\u201cThe risk to the wider public remains low and this case is not linked to the incidents in Kent or Dorset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis Waters, who attended Henley College in Oxfordshire, was one of the four cases of menB in the area.<\/p>\n
He died last week, with a social media post from his father Sean Waters saying he had developed sepsis \u201cwithin a few hours of feeling ill\u201d.<\/p>\n
The other two cases being treated are pupils at separate schools \u2013 Reading Blue Coat School and Highdown Secondary School and Sixth Form Centre.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the UKHSA confirmed tests showed the infection was not the same strain of\u00a0meningitis\u00a0B linked to Kent.<\/p>\n
The fatal outbreak in March led to the deaths of two people and resulted in thousands being given the menB jab or antibiotics in a bid to curb the spread.<\/p>\n
Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford, said: \u201cThese bacteria continue to circulate among teenagers and young adults, most of whom remain healthy and do not know they have these bacteria in their throats. For most of us these bacteria are harmless.<\/p>\n
\u201cA vaccine programme for teenagers could prevent some of these rare cases but not all (not all strains are covered by available vaccines), but might have prevented some of the tragedies seen this year so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the disease is so rare that most people, if vaccinated, would not themselves benefit (as most won\u2019t get the disease) and huge numbers of doses would need to be purchased and used to prevent such rare cases. We don\u2019t know in advance who is going to become ill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a problem for the Government. The vaccine could prevent cases and perhaps reduce the risk of these awful outbreaks, but it would be unlikely that routine vaccination of all teenagers would fit with the established rules on cost-effectiveness in the NHS that are set by HM Treasury to ensure optimal and equitable use of public money.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf rules were relaxed for all medical interventions and the many drugs with some but limited overall benefit were approved, the drug budget for the NHS would spiral out of control.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis seems cruel for affected individuals and families and makes doctors who are on the front line of the fight to save critically ill children with the disease feel let down but it is a clinical and economic reality, until or unless new data on cost-effectiveness for the vaccine are identified or someone comes up with a new system for allocating money for health interventions that favours vaccination against meningitis.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There has been a fourth case of meningitis in Reading, with a junior school pupil in the area…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60,35368,1577],"class_list":["post-456913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-south-east","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456913","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=456913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}