A fourth person has been diagnosed with meningitis B following an outbreak in Reading, the UKHSA has said.
The child, whose age has not been revealed, is a student at Westwood Farm Junior School and is recovering well.
According to the UKHSA, the patient has “links with the same wider social network” as the other cases in the outbreak, which has left a 17 year old dead.
Dr Rachel Mearkle, a consultant in health protection at UKHSA, said: “A fourth case of meningococcal disease has been confirmed in Reading.
“This fourth case has links with the same wider social network as the other cases, where measures, including antibiotic prophylaxis, have already been implemented.”
Ms Mearkle said information had been shared with parents and carers at the school to advise them of the signs and symptoms to look out for.
“The risk to the wider public remains low and this case is not linked to the incidents in Kent or Dorset,” she added.
Lewis Waters, who was one of the four cases of menB in the area, died last week
The 17 year old attended Henley College in Oxfordshire and fell ill last week. His father, Simon Waters, said that “within a few hours”, he had developed sepsis and died.
The other two cases being treated are pupils at separate schools – Reading Blue Coat School and Highdown Secondary School and Sixth Form Centre.
Close contacts of the cases were offered antibiotics as a precaution.
On Friday, the UKHSA said that tests showed the infection was not the same strain of meningitis B linked to the deadly outbreak Kent in March.
The outbreak led to the deaths of two people and resulted in thousands being given the menB jab or antibiotics.
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