Worried patients have been flooding emergency wards frightened that they have the deadly meningitis bug.

Staff at the casualty department of Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital have been inundated with people worried that they have symptoms similar to those of the killer illness. And GPs across the city are under pressure as anxious patients call for check-ups.

There have been four confirmed cases of meningitis among students, including Oxford Brookes University engineering student Adam Prior, 19, who died just hours after contracting a deadly strain on February 13.

Three other students in the city have fallen ill in the last fortnight. Now all first-year students at the university have been given antibiotics as a precaution. Doctors and nurses at the JR said they had been "swamped" with scores of patients complaining of meningitis-type symptoms, but no other cases had come to light.

One doctor, who did not want to be named, said "a lot of very frightened" Oxford Brookes students had been turning up in casualty.

GP Andy Chivers, of the Jericho Health Centre, said inquiries and consultations had increased in surgeries across the city. More people were also asking about injections and antibiotics.

A spokesman for the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the JR, the Churchill Hospital and Banbury's Horton Hospital, said consultants had seen a surge in numbers two or three days after the death of Adam Prior and there were still more cases than average.

An Oxfordshire Health Authority spokesman added: "It is a perfectly normal reaction and it is better to be safe than sorry. We ask people to be vigilant, look out for the symptoms and not to hesitate to contact their GP." Tests have confirmed that a student from Westminster College has been suffering from meningitis. The first-year theology student was taken ill during a trip home to Kent on Friday but is now recovering in hospital.

Earlier, a first-year hotel and catering student at Oxford Brookes University was struck down, and within hours a mature female student at Oxford College of Further Education was taken ill.

All the victims are said to be recovering and so far none of the cases has been linked.

Meningitis is typically transmitted by close contact with bacteria carried in the nose and throat. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, severe headache, stiff neck, back or joint pain, dislike of bright lights, a rash with spots that do not fade under pressure, disorientation or a coma.

Story date: Tuesday 09 March

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