LONDON (dpa-AFX) - The UK Health Security Agency has alerted all higher education and university students - freshers and returning students - to make sure they are up to date with their free NHS childhood and adolescent vaccines against meningitis, measles and HPV ahead of starting the new academic year.
With lots of people newly coming together in confined environments and close mixing, universities and higher education can be hot spots for Covid-19, flu, measles, mumps and meningococcal disease, conducive for infection to spread, UKHSA warned in a press release.
Meningitis and septicaemia can both be fatal or cause life-changing disabilities. In England, all students are offered the MenACWY vaccine in school year 9 or 10, protecting them against four different types of meningococcal bacteria that can cause meningitis and septicaemia. The MenACWY vaccine is available to anyone who missed the vaccine up to their 25th birthday.
UKHSA reminded that it is important to check if the students have had both doses of the MMR vaccine as there are measles outbreaks across the country. 'It is possible for anyone, whatever their age, to catch up on missed MMR jabs.'
Dr.Shamez Ladhani, Consultant Epidemiologist at UKHSA, urged young people starting or returning to university to check they are up to date on their MenACWY, HPV and MMR jabs and to contact their GP if unsure.
'We usually see increases in cases of meningococcal meningitis after the university term starts in September. New and returning students from around the country and overseas coming together and mixing means infection spreads easily, with some students becoming seriously ill and tragically in some cases, we see deaths,' Dr.Ladhani added.
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