Bacterial meningitis has left two young people dead and another fifteen seriously ill following an outbreak linked to a night club in Canterbury. Whenever there’s a photo of a pretty non-celeb teenager in the paper the heart sinks. So rarely is it good news. This time it was, Juliette, 18, a sixth form pupil, smiling out at us with a pink flower in her hair. She died from the illness on Sunday. Her father said the family had ‘no words to express their loss’.

Her father said the family had ‘no words to express their loss’

Her father said the family had ‘no words to express their loss’

By the time our children reach adolescence, meningitis – which we were all terrified of when they were babies – has slipped down our worry lists; it’s way below drugs, alcohol, pregnancy, rape, accidents and murder. It’s this – and the devastating speed with which the infection takes hold – that makes it so deadly.

The problem is that meningitis is difficult to........

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