Students sign-up for meningitis study

Thousands of students visited members of our Research and Development Team at their stand at the UCAS Higher Education Convention at Westpoint Centre in Exeter this week to find out more about careers in the NHS and research, development and innovation work at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust.

As part of this, more than 800 of the students came forward over the two days to sign-up to a national research study looking into the prevalence of meningitis in young people, aged 16-19.

This takes the total number of young people to have been swabbed by our clinical research nurses to over 2,200, exceeding their target of enrolling 1,500 volunteer participants.

The study aims to understand why a germ that is usually harmless, called the meningococcus, can sometimes cause meningitis and blood poisoning.

Alison Stolton, Research Nurse Specialist, explains: “We were really encouraged by the number of students who came up to us at the convention, who were interested in finding out more and willing to take part in the meningitis research study.

“We have been collecting samples from the throats of healthy teenagers and the swabs taken will be compared at research laboratories in Manchester, Glasgow and Oxford University with samples taken from people with the disease and completed a short questionnaire. Comparing the samples will help us to better understand the bacteria and inform how vaccines can help protect people against this form of meningitis in the future.

“The convention was also a great opportunity for us to discuss other areas in research too, as well as careers within the NHS. In addition, for many of the students too it was their first encounter with a health professional and it was a great opportunity for us to discuss our roles within healthcare.”

Teenagers and young children are at an increased risk of meningitis and blood poisoning due to the meningococcus germ which is ‘carried’ in the back of the throat without causing any symptoms in about one in five teenagers.

Nationally the study aims to involve 18,000 teenagers aged 15 to 19 years old across the UK. It is funded by the Wellcome Trust and sponsored by the University of Oxford. In the South West peninsula the researchers are from Devon, Cornwall and Somerset Public Health and Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust.

For more information about the research study, see: http://www.ukmencar4.org/