Author Michael Rosen urges people to ‘look everywhere’ for meningitis rash

Author Michael Rosen, whose son Eddie died from meningitis in 1999, has warned people to “look everywhere” for the rash associated with the infection.

The 79-year-old, who is best known for the children’s book We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, was speaking following an outbreak of the infection in Kent, which has recently seen the total number of cases being investigated by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) rise to 20.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Rosen said: “The rash, look everywhere if there’s any doubt whatsoever, look everywhere.

“Don’t be intrusive, obviously, but armpits, not so intrusive, ask your teenagers to look at their groin, and the glass test is effective, it’s absolutely effective.”

The glass test is a way of checking whether a rash is meningitis or not, by firmly pressing a glass against a skin rash, if it does not fade or disappear, then people are urged by the NHS to call 999.

Speaking about his son catching the infection, Rosen added: “It looked like flu, and people talk about the rash and assume it’s visible, that it’s on your arms or on your chest.

“But I only found out when Eddie had died, that the rash, the only place it appeared was in his armpits.

“So by and large, you don’t, when somebody’s ill, say, ‘let me look at your armpits’, and with teenagers, you don’t say, ‘let me look in your groin’, obviously, because it’s a private matter, but it can also appear on the soles of your feet.”

The Harrow-born writer went on to say that when Eddie, 18, was feeling unwell, he “put him to bed, taking ibuprofen and paracetamol, and he was dead in the morning”.

He said: “I mean, it really was that quick, and if I dare, I say simple, that I went in, in the morning, and he was lying on his back.

“I said, ‘Eddie, I’ve got to go to work now, Eddie’, he didn’t reply, and then I felt him and then immediately realised he was dead.

“Hoping that he wasn’t, (I) rang for the ambulance guys to come over, they told me to pull him out of the bed, and he had rigor mortis by then.

“His arm was in the air, I pulled him onto the floor, some fluid came out of his mouth, and then the ambulance guys arrived about four or five minutes later, immediately said he’s dead, that was that (it) was really all that abrupt and terrifying.”

Rosen described Eddie’s death as “abrupt and terrifying”, but added he likes to think Eddie was a “contributing factor” for people getting the MenC vaccine, which fights the C variant of meningitis, as it came in, in 1999, the year he died.

Following the recent outbreak, GPs across the country have now been told to prescribe antibiotics to anyone who visited a nightclub in Canterbury from March 5-7, plus students from the University of Kent.

The NHS says meningitis is an infection of the protective membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord (meninges).

It says the infection is most common in babies, young children, teenagers, and young adults, and can be very serious if not treated quickly.

Symptoms include a high temperature, being sick, a headache, a rash, a stiff neck, a dislike of bright lights, drowsiness or unresponsiveness, and seizures, according to the NHS.