HEALTH officials have warned of travellers returning to the UK with a rare bacteria that invades the nervous system and can turn fatal within hours. New figures suggest that three people tested positive for invasive meningococcal disease in the UK after coming back from Saudi Arabia. 2 Three people tested positive for invasive meningococcal disease in the UK after coming back from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia Credit: Getty Meningococcal bacteria can lead to two major illnesses: meningitis and septicaemia, which can sometimes occur simultaneously.
Meningitis needs urgent medical treatment because it progresses fast, killing around 10 per cent of those who get it and disabling many others. Nine in ten children and teenagers who die of meningococcal meningitis die within 24 hours, according to the Meningitis Research Foundation. Since April, there have been 12 cases of meningococcal disease associated with travel for Umrah, an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.
Believers in the Muslim faith make Umrah trips to Mecca throughout the year to receive blessings. Muslims also make a more extended pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime during a set time of year called Hajj, which this year is in June. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control , two of the pilgrims who got sick lived in the UK, four lived in France, and five were from the US.
Ten people who got sick had been to Mecca, and two had close contact with someone who did. Most .