This is LBC from Global, leading Britain's conversation with James O'Brien.

It's three minutes after ten. A very good morning to you. We've got quite a grown-up show today. I should probably warn you in advance, but I'm sure we'll find room for some fun and frolics and possibly a couple of ferrets as well before the day is out.

It never entirely obvious what question one should ask at times like this. I'm referring immediately and mainly to the meningitis outbreak, the fatal meningitis outbreak that has now been declared a national incident, although one of two of you have already pointed out, that just means it's reached London.

I don't think that's entirely fair. It becomes national when it spreads beyond the area in which it began.

We know that two people have died,

and we know that an event in a nightclub in Canterbury in Kent

has been deemed a super spreader event.

Health officials braced for the death toll to keep rising,

and the number of cases will probably go up in the course

of this program. I would like to know and I hope this is an appropriate question and not a silly one

and also not a rhetorical one. I hope it's not a question to which everybody except me knows the

answer. But as a public health professional, what is your training with regard to meningitis?

What are you taught? As we see things unfolding, I've been across the southeast, most obviously in Kent.

You just heard the cabinet minister doing the studio rounds this morning,

talking about the nightclub where if you were there,

then you should be seeking antibiotics.

I've seen photographs of queues down in Kent at the university of students in masks

trying to get, or not trying to get, queuing up successfully for their treatment. And in a way,

that the other element of the conversation that I'm keen to have today is about the, just the reaction you have to the word.

It's very generation-based, isn't it?

I think this came across during what I heard of Nick's show.

You have a very generational- based response to this.

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