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Scientists comment on 3 cases of meningococcal disease in Dorset.
Prof Martin Maiden, Professor of Molecular Epidemiology, University of Oxford, said:
“Although now relatively rare, cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) still do occur in the UK and are seasonal, so there are more cases in winter and fewer in summer. Certain meningococcal variants, termed ‘hyperinvasive’ are more likely to cause disease, but most meningococcal variants are never seen in cases of disease. Sporadic cases can be clustered by chance or direct transmission, while the most concerning outbreaks are characterised by rapid spread of infection with a single meningococcal variant in a very short time (i.e. a few days) causing an outbreak, as in Kent, where all cases are tightly linked in space, time, and contact group. In the UK currently, many sporadic cases of serogroup B meningococcal disease are caused by relatives of the variant seen in Kent, but that precise variant and its behaviour remain unique.
“The HSA has well-developed protocols for managing clusters of meningococcal, which are deployed as necessary. These protocols worked well in Kent, even though the outbreak was unusually large, as described in: https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2026.31.15.2600288. The most important issue is to have active surveillance (which we do have in the UK, thankfully), which enables swift public health action. It is also important that at risk groups are aware of symptoms and seek treatment promptly – this is true for sporadic cases, clusters and outbreaks.”
Declared interests
Prof Martin Maiden: “I am a member of the Invasive Meningococcal Disease Technical Group that put together the UKHSA technical briefing. I have conduced commercial consultation on behalf of Oxford University in this area in the past, but I have no current active funding conflicts of interest.”