Meningitis B: What You Need To Know
A petition is calling for the meningitis B vaccine to be given to all children after images of a toddler who died from the disease went viral. Warning: You may find some of the images in this post distressing.
The parents of a 2-year-old girl who recently died from meningitis have shared images of their daughter in hospital to raise awareness.
Since then, thousands of people have signed a petition to extend meningitis B vaccinations to older children.
A national meningitis B vaccination program was launched last year and the vaccine is offered on the NHS when children are aged between 2 and 5 months. But if parents of older children want them vaccinated they must pay privately.
Meningitis is an inflammation of the protective membrane around the brain and spinal cord.
That's the dura mater, arachnoid, and pia mater layers you can see in this diagram.
NIH / en.wikipedia.org
The viral form is the most common, but the bacterial form is the most dangerous, according to the NHS. Rarely, meningitis can also be caused by a fungus or parasite.
Most cases of bacterial meningitis in the UK and Ireland are caused by neisseria meningitidis, often called meningococcal bacteria. Of the 12 known groups of meningococcal bacteria, group B – which is protected against by the meningitis B vaccine – is responsible for about 90% of meningococcal infections in the UK.
Meningitis B has infected between 500 and 1,700 people every year for the past 20 years, with around 1 in 10 dying from the infection. It mainly affects babies and young children.
It's not possible to tell what type of meningitis someone has from the symptoms, so all suspected cases should be treated as a medical emergency, says the NHS.