{"id":341605,"date":"2026-03-22T02:52:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T02:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/341605\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T02:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T02:52:22","slug":"students-in-kent-university-halls-to-be-offered-meningitis-vaccine-as-streeting-calls-outbreak-unprecedented","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/341605\/","title":{"rendered":"Students in Kent university halls to be offered meningitis vaccine as Streeting calls outbreak ‘unprecedented’"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is meningitis?published at 15:44 GMT 17 March<\/p>\n

15:44 GMT 17 March<\/p>\n

A team of experts and correspondents are answering your questions on the meningitis outbreak in Kent. As a reminder, you can watch live at the top of this page.<\/p>\n

Meningitis can affect the whole body, says Dr Nighat Arif, who is a GP. <\/p>\n

You get infection around the meninges – protective membranes around the spinal cord and brain – and infected inflammation can then go out into the blood stream and cause something called septicaemia, she explains. <\/p>\n

This can cause “a range of symptoms” from fever, headache, stomach cramps, as well as “a change of behaviour” like sleepiness or confusion, she says. <\/p>\n

Symptoms are similar to flu, and can be “hard to distinguish until it becomes quite sinister”, she says. At this point, people often get a rash that doesn’t disappear when pressed with a glass tumbler. Arif adds that for people with brown or black skin, its best to check hands, the soles of the feet or inside their mouth as its harder to detect the rash. <\/p>\n

Vinny Smith, chief executive of the Meningitis Research Foundation, says that he will “always advise people to trust their instincts” when something doesn’t feel right. <\/p>\n

“If this is going seriously badly wrong really quickly, that’s a good indicator” of meningitis too, he adds. <\/p>\n

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