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Inside Health

Could the Kent meningitis outbreak happen again?

Inside Health

BBC

Health & Fitness, Science

4.4575 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Little over a week on from the first meningitis cases in Canterbury, many crucial questions remain.

So this week we're taking an in-depth look at those questions and what we’ve learnt from this outbreak - and could it happen again?

James also hears from author Michael Rosen whose son Eddie died from meningitis aged 18 about just how quickly the disease struck and how he deals with his grief.

And would you trust health advice from an AI chatbot?

We hear from someone who regularly turns to ChatGPT and from GP Dr Margaret McCartney about her concerns.

Presenter: James Gallagher Producer: Gerry Holt Content editor: Ilan Goodman Production coordinator: Stuart Laws Studio engineer: Donald MacDonald

Inside Health was made by the BBC’s Audio Science Unit in collaboration with The Open University.

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

0:07.3

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0:10.9

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0:13.5

But who are the family behind one of the world's tech giants?

0:17.2

They often say, look, we built the nation.

0:19.2

And without us, South Korea as it exists today,

0:22.6

would simply not be here. Inheritance, Samsung, explores the real-life dramas of the Lee family

0:28.3

and their company. They are the equivalent of royalty. Listen first on BBC Sounds.

0:34.4

Hello there and welcome to the Inside Health podcast with me, James Gallagher.

0:38.5

Later, we're going to take a look at the health advice given by AI chatbots. Our resident GP,

0:43.9

Dr Margaret McCarney, has concerns, but for now, our attention is on the outbreak of meningitis

0:49.4

in Kent. It's been described as unprecedented in its speed and has raised new questions about

0:55.6

whether teenagers and young adults should be given the meningitis B vaccine. We'll discuss those

1:01.2

issues in a minute, but first we're joined by children's author Michael Rosen. His son Eddie died

1:06.4

from meningitis at the age of 18. Michael, thank you for talking to us. Oh, well, thank you, James.

1:12.4

Can you just start by telling me how you felt over the past week or so seeing the outbreak in Kent?

1:19.4

I think it was a feeling of awful familiarity. So usually we think the word familiarity is something

1:26.3

quite nice, almost nostalgic.

1:29.3

But because it reminded me of my own son, Eddie, dying that way through meningitis,

1:35.1

there was a sense of a, oh no, here we go again,

1:38.1

and a sense of enormous sympathy for the parents and the friends and the lovers of those teenagers who died

1:45.2

or the ones who felt terribly threatened by it as well.

...

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