One student in four is at risk of contracting meningitis because of “worryingly low” vaccination rates, a survey warned yesterday. One student in four is at risk of contracting meningitis because of “worryingly low” vaccination rates, a survey warned yesterday.
One-quarter of students have not yet received a potentially life-saving vaccine against the killer disease, even at a time when the risk of infection is particularly high, experts warned.Outbreaks of meningitis often follow high rates of flu, and students are particularly susceptible to the C strain of the brain disease. Last September the Government launched a campaign to vaccinate all first-year undergraduate students with the meningitis C vaccine.But a survey by the Primary Care Virology Group, an independent group of GPs, found that 25 per cent of students had not received the vaccine.While 91 per cent of the 610 students questioned knew of the campaign and 77 per cent thought meningitis was a “very serious” infection, many had not bothered to be inoculated. In some areas the rate was lower; in Huddersfield 62 per cent of students had not been vaccinated, and in London 41 per cent had not received the jab.The survey found that 53 per cent of those not vaccinated said they had simply “not got round to it”, despite highprofile cases of students dying of the disease. Low levels of registration with GPs in university towns were partly to blame for students not getting vaccinated.In London and Huddersfield only one-third of freshers had registered with a doctor.

But in York, where 94 per cent of first-year students were registered with a family doctor, the vaccination rate was 91 per cent.Dr Nigel Higson, chairman of the Primary Care Virology Group, said: “Students should sign up with a GP straight away and ensure they receive a meningitis vaccination. Individuals in their late teens and early 20s are more likely to be affected by meningitis C than other strains of the disease. It is extremely serious and is preventable with a vaccine that takes just a few minutes to receive. Outbreaks of meningitis often follow outbreaks of influ-enza, so I would urge students to take action immediately.”The vaccine will provide protection against the C strain of the disease for about three years. A rolling programme of vaccination is being implemented by the Government that will eventually lead to all under-18s being vaccinated. About 40 per cent of meningitis cases in the UK are the C strain of the disease, with the B strain accounting for most of the rest.. Three years ago, Carolyn Draper’s life went on hold.

Aged 35, she was in a highly stressful job, teaching in a tough inner-city secondary school. She dreaded going into work and every day she came home and collapsed into a chair with exhaustion. Her limbs ached, she began to get headaches and she finally succumbed to a nasty bout of flu. “From that day on my life was never really the same,” Carolyn says. “I felt so shattered that I was going to bed really early but waking up feeling more tired than ever. When I told my GP, he said I was depressed and that two weeks of counselling would have me feeling as right as rain I burst into tears. I began to think I was going round the bend.”

Three years ago, Carolyn Draper’s life went on hold.