AN INFECTIOUS diseases expert yesterday ruled out a meningitis outbreak, following the death of a young Dundee man from the illness, writes Marjory Inglis, health reporter.

Paul Hodge (34) died suddenly on Wednesday night shortly after being admitted to Ninewells Hospital with meningitis. It is understood the particular type of meningitis has yet to be identified but is likely to be meningitis B, for which there is no vaccination.

Dundee-based Dr Dilip Nathwani said that while winter was “meningitis season” there had been few cases locally and vaccination had reduced the numbers of patients succumbing to particular strains.

However, a major factor that can influence a person’s response to the illness with tragic consequences is their genetic make up.

“I have seen patients who have meningitis walk in to the ward,” said Dr Nathwani. “Okay they are poorly with fever and headache but not otherwise particularly unwell and then I have seen tragedies in which the patient just wakes up and has a bit of a headache and, in a matter of hours, becomes more unwell and dies. That is the challenge we face.”

Dr Nathwani said his team at Ninewells Hospital had not seen a lot of bacterial meningitis recently, primarily because of vaccination. However, the vaccination programme does not tackle all types of the illness.

“There is no vaccine for group B. We still see other strains but, because of vaccination, we see those other strains a lot less commonly than we used to.

“This is the time of year for bacterial meningitis but I have to say we have not seen a lot of it.

“The tragedy of meningitis is that in a small percentage of patients it attacks and causes devastation and fatality very quickly, while in other people it can take many hours or days to cause problems and that is definitely to do with genetics as well as the virulence of the germ.

“Some people are very susceptible to severe infection and that is something to do with their make-up and genetics.”