Surrey students offered meningitis B jab after undergraduate"s death

Students living on campus at the University of Surrey are being offered the meningitis B vaccine after a student died and two others were taken to hospital with the bug.

John Igboanugo, a first-year physics undergraduate, died earlier this month following a sports trip to Rimini in Italy.

Two other Surrey students also fell ill with meningitis but have now been discharged from hospital.

Public Health England (PHE) said laboratory reports had confirmed two of the students had meningitis B while the third was thought to have contracted the B strain of the bug as well.

About 4,200 full-time students living in halls on the Guildford campus – around a third of the total student population – are now being offered the jab to protect against meningitis B.

The vaccine is normally only routinely given on the NHS to young babies.

Prof Max Lu, vice-chancellor of the University of Surrey, said: “We are greatly saddened by the death of our student, and our hearts go out to his family and friends during what continues to be a very difficult time.

“The health and wellbeing of everyone on campus is of the utmost importance.

“We are working closely with PHE on a targeted vaccination programme and are reassured that the risk to staff, students and visitors is still very low.”

Prof Kamila Hawthorne, associate dean for medicine at the University of Surrey, added: “We appreciate that when cases of meningitis B occur there is increased concern about the potential spread, but evidence shows that meningococcal infection is not highly contagious, comparatively rare and the risk to the wider community remains very low.

“Only people who have prolonged, close contact with an ill person are at a slightly increased risk of becoming unwell.

“If anyone is in any doubt or concerned about their health, or the health of others, please call NHS 111 urgently.”

The university said there was no direct link between the three cases.

The two students who were taken to hospital had not been on the sports trip to Italy.

PHE said passengers on the coach trip had been offered antibiotics as a precaution.

It said the wider population in the town and non-students who visited but did not live on the university campus were not considered to be within the at-risk group.

Dr Peter English, consultant in communicable disease control from PHE in the south-east of England, said: “Meningococcal infection is comparatively rare and the risk of transmission is relatively low.

“People who have prolonged, close contact with an ill person are at a slightly increased risk of becoming unwell in the following days.

“This is why immediate contacts of the cases have already been offered antibiotics as a precautionary measure.

“After considering the medical evidence, we have decided to offer vaccination to around 4,200 students living in halls of residence at the university to reduce risk of further cases next term.

“I would like to reassure other students, teachers, their families and the local community that the risk of catching this infection remains very low, and any higher risk is confined to those being offered the vaccine.”

Students are regularly offered a vaccine against other strains of meningitis, known as the Men ACWY jab.

Meningitis can develop rapidly and is sometimes mistaken for flu. Those who survive can be left with life-changing disabilities.

Symptoms include a high temperature, feeling or being sick, exhaustion and irritability, a headache and aching joints, stiff neck and dislike of bright lights, confusion and a rash.

Surrey students offered meningitis B jab after undergraduate"s death

The banana republic of Surrey has shown local council funding is broken | Simon Jenkins

The algebra is simple. The NHS is having another terrible winter. It does not collapse, but “spills demand” on to the next line of defence, local government welfare. But while the NHS gets more money annually from the Treasury, local government gets less, some 30% less since 2011. It cannot cope with the new pressure.

The equation resolves itself into rationing, by quantity and quality: fewer care places, fewer home visits and fewer district nurses leads to more bed-blocking, fewer operations, longer trolley waits.

Tory Surrey is a responsible supplier of post-hospital care. Like all councils, it is allowed by the Treasury to increase its council tax by 5%, specifically to boost its care budget and thus ease pressure on the NHS – which the Treasury is responsible for funding. Surrey county council regarded this as nothing like enough. It therefore activated its statutory right to hold a referendum on a 15% increase.

Far from showing delight at a wealthy council accepting this burden, the Tory government was appalled. Tories do not increase taxes. The chancellor (and Surrey MP) Philip Hammond duly did what Jeremy Corbyn called a secret deal. If Surrey abandoned its referendum and the 15% hike, it could retain revenue from a different tax – the local business rate, which normally went to the Treasury. That is, the Treasury would in effect spend more on health and care in Surrey, but secretly and, so far, just for Surrey.

This is the stuff of a banana republic. If Britain wants to spend more on health and elderly care, it should raise it and spend it honestly. Instead, the Treasury is running around its fiscal A&E department, staunching the flow of political blood by slamming on plasters wherever a patient screams or twists an arm.

Leaked Surrey council tax texts allow Corbyn to ambush May at PMQs

Some might argue that an NHS free at the point of delivery has had its day. New disciplines and incentives, through fees or insurance or more prevention, must constrain marginal demand. But for the time being, it makes no sense to squeeze the NHS at the top – where politicians are exposed – and dump its problems on to local government and different funding streams at the bottom. It wastes money and distorts priorities. It is illiterate public finance.

If Surrey is harbinger of a new health and care service, and business taxes are to relieve an ever-burgeoning NHS, so be it. But few places are as rich as Surrey. Revenue will have to be redistributed from rich to poor areas. In other words, it is not just the NHS that needs rethinking, but the whole murky world of local government finance.

The banana republic of Surrey has shown local council funding is broken | Simon Jenkins

Pensioner "shot himself dead" in Surrey doctor"s surgical treatment

“The surgery is constantly throwing stuff out so hearing the bang of a bin is quite widespread but this was louder.

“I went about the corner and there were lots of folks and police autos about – it was chaotic.

“I did consider the noise was much louder than the typical bin noise and it sounded like a gun shot.”

Employees at The Mane Street barbers opposite the surgical procedure mentioned they have been told a guy had shot himself dead in the lavatories.

A female member of workers, who asked not to be named, mentioned: “The first issue we heard was the police sirens screaming as the initial of nine vehicles sped up.

“Then there were armed police swarming about, the doctor’s surgical procedure was closed and no person was allowed in.

“I didn’t hear a gunshot myself but an elderly couple who had been in the surgical treatment at the time said a man had shot himself.

“An ambulance turned up outdoors soon right after the police but was turned away, which makes me believe it is proper that the gentleman died.

“Everybody in the surgery had to give statements to the police before they could depart.

“From what I’ve heard the man shot himself in the toilet or the reception area, not in an appointment.”

Staff at the surgery, which has been sealed off, refused to comment on the incident.

Surrey Police confirmed they had been referred to as to reports of a “sudden death”.

A police officer was stationed by a silver Ford Focus ST parked just 25 yards from the surgery entrance, believed to be the dead man’s auto.

A spokesman said: “Surrey Police was known as to a doctor’s surgery in Station Road, Frimley just just before 11am this morning (Monday, 2 June) following reports of a sudden death.

“Officers and other emergency providers attended the spot after reports that a firearm had been discharged within the building.

“The entire body of a guy, believed to be in his 80s, was discovered at the scene, the place he was pronounced dead.

“Officers are carrying out a thorough investigation into the conditions surrounding the death but at this stage there is no indication of any third get together involvement or wider danger to the local local community.

“A publish mortem examination will take spot in due course.”

Adam Wicks, who operates at Vickery and Co estate agents in Frimley Higher Street, which is in the up coming street, said police officers had asked to see the firm’s CCTV footage.

Mr Wicks, from Camberley, Surrey, stated: “I did not hear anything at all myself as we’re too far away but there was a great deal of commotion at the surgical procedure.

“There are about 6 or 7 police automobiles all about the doctor’s surgery.

“The police came in asking about our CCTV but we never have any and they would not tell us anything.”

Pensioner "shot himself dead" in Surrey doctor"s surgical treatment