{"id":83730,"date":"2026-03-17T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/inside-health-whats-driving-the-outbreak-of-meningitis-among-students\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:00:00","slug":"inside-health-whats-driving-the-outbreak-of-meningitis-among-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=83730","title":{"rendered":"Inside Health &#8211; What&#8217;s driving the outbreak of meningitis among students?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">Available for over a year<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-whitespace-pre-line sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">More than 30,000 people are being contacted in the Canterbury area regarding the outbreak of bacterial meningitis in Kent. Two people have died, and others are seriously ill. James Gallagher speaks with immunologist Sir Andrew Pollard about the disease, and finds out what could have caused the outbreak.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the major headline from the UK. But more broadly, for the last few weeks the news has been dominated by the situation in the Middle East. James speaks with Dr Antoine Abou Fayad, a microbiologist and medicinal chemist based in Beirut, Lebanon. He reveals that war, just like the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, provides the perfect storm to accelerate the spread of multidrug-resistant infections. And nobody is safe.  <\/p>\n<p>And finally, James finds out about an ongoing trial at the University of Exeter, where interactive computer games are being used by stroke patients to improve their recovery. And, of course, James has a go himself!<\/p>\n<p>Presenter: James Gallagher<br \/>\nProducer: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell<br \/>\nResearcher: Tom Hunt<br \/>\nEditor: Ilan Goodman<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-text-brevier\">Programme Website<\/span><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16px\" height=\"16px\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-transition sw-ease sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-ml-2 sw-ml-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M21.9,16.9v11.5H3.7V10.2h11.1V7.6H1V31h23.6V16.9H21.9z M18,1v2.6h10.2l-0.5-1.1L11,19l1.9,1.9L29.6,4.3l-1.2-0.5V14H31V1 H18z\"\/><\/svg><button class=\"sw-group sw-text-pica sw-block sw-w-fit sw-pt-4\"><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-mr-0.5\">Show less<\/span><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"0.75rem\" height=\"0.75rem\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-ml-1 sw-mt-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M0 18L16 0l16 18z\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/m002sn3q?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Available for over a year More than 30,000 people are being contacted in the Canterbury area&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1814,5320,231,5993,1608,1373,4808],"class_list":["post-83730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-among","tag-driving","tag-health","tag-meningitis","tag-outbreak","tag-students","tag-whats"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.0 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Inside Health - What&#039;s driving the outbreak of meningitis among students? - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/m002sn3q?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Inside Health - What&#039;s driving the outbreak of meningitis among students?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE&#039;s Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/m002sn3q?at_medium=RSS&amp;at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-17T10:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/p0m1r8h6.avif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Inside Health - What's driving the outbreak of meningitis among students? 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