Health agency names two schools affected by Berkshire meningitis outbreak

Two schools attended by pupils receiving treatment for meningitis have been named amid an outbreak of the infection in Berkshire which has caused the death of a student. The patients attend Reading Blue Coat school and Highdown secondary school and sixth form centre, according to the UK Health Security Agency. Their close contacts have been offered antibiotics as a precaution. The agency confirmed on Thursday that a student who attended Henley college, in Oxfordshire, had died from the infection . Dr Rachel Mearkle, a consultant in health protection, said: “We understand that many people will be affected by this sad news and would like to offer our condolences to the friends and family of this student. “Students and staff will naturally be feeling worried about the likelihood of further cases, however meningococcal meningitis requires very close contact to spread, and large outbreaks, as we saw in Kent recently, are thankfully rare. “We are working closely with partners and have provided public health advice and precautionary antibiotic treatment to close contacts of the cases. Meningococcal disease does not spread easily and the risk to the wider public remains low.” A major outbreak in Kent in March killed two people and left more than a dozen in need of hospital treatment. The strain of meningitis B in Berkshire has been confirmed to be different to the one that spread in Kent. …