Laboratory-confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal infection in England: January to March 2025
Updated 31 July 2025
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2025
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/meningococcal-disease-laboratory-confirmed-cases-in-england-2024-to-2025/laboratory-confirmed-cases-of-invasive-meningococcal-infection-in-england-january-to-march-2025
In England, the national UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Meningococcal Reference Unit (MRU) confirmed 127 cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) between January and March 2025.
Case numbers were higher than the 105 confirmed in the equivalent period in 2024 (Table 1) but lower than the 186 cases in the equivalent period in 2019 – before pandemic restrictions were implemented in the UK. Cases in 2020 – impacted by COVID-19 population control measures (1) – were very low, with 19 confirmed in the equivalent period. There were 65, 102 and 92 cases in 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively, once IMD had re-emerged.
Earlier reports on IMD cases in England are available at Meningococcal disease: guidance, data and analysis.
Following the complete withdrawal of COVID-19 containment measures in England from July 2021, overall case numbers returned to pre-pandemic levels driven mainly by group B meningococcal disease (MenB). Cases due to the other capsular groups remained very low because of the highly effective indirect (herd) protection provided by the adolescent meningococcal ACWY (MenACWY) conjugate vaccine programme introduced from August 2015, alongside direct protection in those vaccinated (2).
The distribution of IMD cases by capsular group between January and March 2025 is summarised in table 1. MenB accounted for 83.5% of all cases (106 of 127), followed by MenW: 10.2% (13 cases), MenY: 3.9% (5 cases), MenE: 0.8% (1 case) and Ungrouped/ungroupable: 0.8% (1 case). There were no confirmed cases for any other capsular groups. Several MenW cases throughout 2024 were known to have had recent travel to the Middle East, with similar cases also identified in France and the United States of America associated with travel to Saudi Arabia for Umrah pilgrimage (3).
There were 106 MenB cases confirmed between January and March 2025, compared to 97 cases in the corresponding period in 2024. During this period, MenB was responsible for 95.2% (59 of 62) of IMD cases in individuals under 25 years of age and 72.3% (47 of 65) of cases in individuals aged 25 years or older (Table 2). Of confirmed cases of MenW and MenY, 83.3% (15 of 18) occurred in individuals aged over 25 years.
The latest vaccine coverage information is available at Vaccine uptake guidance and the latest coverage data.
Table 1. Invasive meningococcal disease in England by capsular group and laboratory testing method: January to March only, 2024 and 2025
| Capsular groups [note 1] |
PCR and culture (2024) | PCR and culture (2025) | Culture only (2024) | Culture only (2025) | PCR only (2024) | PCR only (2025) | Total (2024) | Total (2025) |
| Capsular groups [note 1] | PCR and culture (2024) | PCR and culture (2025) | Culture only (2024) | Culture only (2025) | PCR only (2024) | PCR only (2025) | Total (2024) | Total (2025) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | 20 | 20 | 23 | 30 | 54 | 56 | 97 | 106 |
| C | – | – | 1 | 1 | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| E | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | 1 |
| Ungrouped/ungroupable [note 2] | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | 1 |
| W | – | 2 | 2 | 10 | – | 1 | 2 | 13 |
| Y | – | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| Total | 20 | 23 | 28 | 46 | 57 | 58 | 105 | 127 |
Note 1: no cases of group A, X or Z were confirmed during the periods summarised in the table.
Note 2: Ungrouped or ungroupable refers to invasive clinical meningococcal isolates that were non-groupable, while ‘ungrouped’ cases refers to culture-negative but PCR screen (ctrA) positive and negative for the 4 genogroups (B, C, W and Y) routinely tested for.
Table 2. Invasive meningococcal disease in England by capsular group [note 1] and age group at diagnosis, January to March 2025
| Age groups | Capsular group B | Capsular group C | Capsular group E | Capsular group W | Capsular group Y | Capsular group ‘Ungrouped or ungroupable’ [note 2] |
Total number | Total percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 0.8% |
| Less than 1 year | 12 | – | – | – | – | – | 12 | 9.4% |
| 1 to 4 years | 9 | – | – | 1 | – | – | 10 | 7.9% |
| 5 to 9 years | 4 | – | – | 1 | 1 | – | 6 | 4.7% |
| 10 to 14 years | 7 | – | – | – | – | – | 7 | 5.5% |
| 15 to 19 years | 17 | – | – | – | – | – | 17 | 13.4% |
| 20 to 24 years | 9 | – | – | – | – | – | 9 | 7.1% |
| 25 to 44 years | 15 | – | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 15.0% |
| 45 to 64 years | 18 | – | – | 3 | 1 | – | 22 | 17.3% |
| 65 years and over | 14 | 1 | – | 7 | 2 | – | 24 | 18.9% |
| Total | 106 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 127 | 100.0% |
Note 1: No cases of group A, X or Z were confirmed during the period summarised in the table.
Note 2: Ungrouped or ungroupable refers to invasive clinical meningococcal isolates that were non-groupable, while ‘ungrouped’ cases refers to culture-negative but PCR screen (ctrA) positive and negative for the 4 genogroups (B, C, W and Y) routinely tested for.
References
1. Subbarao S, Campbell H, Ribeiro S, Clark SA, Lucidarme J and others (2021). ‘Invasive meningococcal disease, 2011 to 2020, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, England’ Emerging Infectious Diseases: volume 27, number 9, pages 2,495 to 2,497
2. Campbell H and others (2022). ‘Impact of an adolescent meningococcal ACWY immunisation programme to control a national outbreak of group W meningococcal disease in England: a national surveillance and modelling study’ Lancet Child Adolescent Health: volume 6, issue 2
3. Vachon MS, Barret AS, Lucidarme J, Neatherlin J, Rubis AB, Howie RL, and others (2024). ‘Cases of meningococcal dsease associated with travel to Saudi Arabia for Umrah pilgrimage: USA, UK and France, 2024’ Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report: volume 73, number 22, pages 514 to 516