Laboratory confirmed cases of invasive meningoccocal infection in England: January to March 2026
Updated 25 June 2026
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2026
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-2025-to-2026/laboratory-confirmed-cases-of-invasive-meningoccocal-infection-in-england-january-to-march-2026
In England, the national UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Meningococcal Reference Unit (MRU) confirmed 123 cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) between January and March 2026.
Case numbers were very similar to the 128 confirmed in the equivalent period in 2025 (table 1) and lower than the 169 cases in the equivalent period in 2020, before pandemic restrictions were implemented in the UK. Cases in 2021 – impacted by COVID-19 population control measures (1) – were very low, with 18 confirmed in the equivalent period. Fifty-seven, 165 and 105 cases were confirmed in the first quarter 2022, 2023 and 2024, respectively, as IMD re-emerged.
This re-emergence followed the complete withdrawal of COVID-19 containment measures in England from July 2021, with overall case numbers returning 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 2026 is summarised in table 1. MenB accounted for 87.8% of all cases (108 of 123), followed by MenW at 6.5% (8 cases), MenY at 1.6% (2 cases), MenC at 0.8% (1 case) and MenZ at 0.8% (1 case) with ungrouped/ungroupable cases accounting for 2.4% (3 cases) of the total. There were no confirmed cases for any other capsular groups.
The period between January and March 2026 includes the unprecedented Kent MenB outbreak associated with 21 cases in students and other young people in the Canterbury area; see Cases of invasive meningococcal disease notified in Kent (3).
The 108 MenB cases confirmed between January and March 2026 compared to 107 cases in the corresponding period in 2025. During January to March 2026, MenB was responsible for 96.1% (73 of 76) of IMD cases in individuals under 25 years of age and 74.5% (35 of 47) of cases in individuals aged 25 years or older (table 2). All (8 of 8) confirmed cases of MenW occurred in individuals aged over 25 years.
The latest vaccine coverage information is available at Vaccine uptake guidance and the latest coverage data. Earlier reports on IMD cases in England are available: Meningococcal disease: guidance, data and analysis
Table 1. Invasive meningococcal disease in England by capsular group and laboratory testing method: January to March only, 2025 and 2026 [note 3]
| Capsular groups [note 1] |
PCR and culture (2025) | PCR and culture (2026) | Culture only (2025) | Culture only (2026) | PCR only (2025) | PCR only (2026) | Total (2025) | Total (2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | 20 | 18 | 31 | 31 | 56 | 59 | 107 | 108 |
| C | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| E | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Ungrouped/ungroupable [note 2] | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| W | 2 | 2 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 8 |
| Y | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 |
| Z | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 23 | 22 | 47 | 40 | 58 | 61 | 128 | 123 |
Note 1: No cases of group A or X 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 four genogroups (B, C, W and Y) routinely tested for.
Note 3: For calendar year 2025 and prior, date sample received by MRU was used. As of 2026, we are now using the date the sample was collected instead. In this HPR, 10 cases with date received in 2026 but data collected in December 2025 were also included to avoid missing any cases during this change of processes.
Table 2. Invasive meningococcal disease in England by capsular group [note 1] and age group at diagnosis: January to March 2026
| Age groups | Capsular group B | Capsular group C | Capsular group W | Capsular group Y | Capsular group Z | Capsular group ‘Ungrouped or ungroupable’ [note 2] |
Total number | Total percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1 year | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 12.2% |
| 1 to 4 years | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 6.5% |
| 5 to 9 years | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2.4% |
| 10 to 14 years | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4.1% |
| 15 to 19 years | 29 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 31 | 25.2% |
| 20 to 24 years | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 11.4% |
| 25 to 44 years | 12 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 10.6% |
| 45 to 64 years | 13 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 12.2% |
| 65 years and over | 10 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 15.4% |
| Total | 108 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 123 | 100.0% |
Note 1: No cases of group A, E or X 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 four 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. I’Anson J, Anderson C, Arora S, Borrow R, Bray N, Campbell H and other members of the Incident Management Team (2026). ‘Large outbreak of group B invasive meningococcal disease in young adults in South East England’. Eurosurveillance: volume 31, number 15.