Warning on meningitis for adults

Meningitis is a threat to adults as well as children, health campaigners warned yesterday at the start of national meningitis awareness week.

The disease, an inflammation of the lining of the brain, affects up to 2,500 people a year in Britain and cases of the most lethal strain, the meningococcal, are increasing, the National Meningitis Trust said.

"People of any age can get meningitis," Ray Thompson, a spokesman for the trust, said. "The highest-risk age-groups are birth to seven, 16 to 25 and over 50." Louise Jury