Henley death sparks calls for meningitis vaccine rollout

Dr Tom Nutt, chief executive of Meningitis Now, told the BBC that young lives are “precious” and we should do “everything” we can to protect them.

He added: “The argument against the introduction of the menB vaccination for teenagers and young adults is actually around cost-effectiveness.

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“The lives of teenagers and young adults are too precious and it is tragic to see yet another death.”

His comments come a day after it was confirmed that Lewis Waters, who attended Henley College in Oxfordshire, had died after contracting Meningitis.

Lewis Waters, a sixth-form pupil at The Henley College in Oxfordshire, died of meningitis earlier this week (Image: Facebook)

The student was one of three cases reported in the outbreak, which also includes two school pupils in Reading.

Dr Nutt said that it is known that the vaccine is “safe” and “effective”, but added: “The trouble is it’s an expensive vaccine.”

According to the broadcaster, he has called upon the government to consider the wider benefits that could come from rolling the menB vaccination out further.

“Health is an asset that we really must protect,” Dr Nutt said.

Henley College in Oxfordshire (Image: Zoe Head-Thomas/PA)

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In a social media post shared on Friday, Lewis’ father Sean Waters paid tribute to his son and wrote: “Words simply can’t describe the heartbreak and upset we’re going through.”

He said Lewis developed sepsis “within a few hours of feeling ill”, adding: “He fought hard and was really taken care of by the ICU team, but they just couldn’t save him.”

“We are absolutely devastated,” he added.

He said his son was “funny, sociable and kind-hearted”, and “loved his sisters, friends and family dearly”.

“Life won’t be the same for many of us now that he’s gone.”

Students queued to receive vaccines and antibiotics at the University of Kent campus in Canterbury in March (Image: Gareth Fuller/PA)

On Friday it emerged that the other two patients being treated for meningitis are pupils at separate schools in the area – Reading Blue Coat School and Highdown Secondary School and Sixth Form Centre.

The UKHSA said close contacts have been offered antibiotics as a precaution.

The charity chiefs calls for the vaccine rollout echo that of Freddie van Mierlo, Liberal Democrat MP for Henley and Thame, who said the Government should explore a catch-up vaccination programme.

Currently, anyone born after 2015 has not had the vaccine as it was only offered routinely to babies as part of the NHS childhood vaccination programme since that year.

Henley and Thame MP Freddie van Mierlo called for a vaccine catch-up programme (Image: Zoe Head-Thomas/PA)

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Mr van Mierlo told the Press Association: “I think what we need to now look at, given what happened in Kent, and now here in Henley, is a wider catch-up vaccination programme.

“We have a cohort of young, young adults at university and at colleges like this who’ve never been vaccinated against meningitis B, who I think now need to be protected. That’s very clear.

“So, what I’m asking the Government to do is look at procuring a large number of vaccines and rolling that out as soon as possible.”