Father of teenager who died from meningitis calls for catch-up vaccination programme

Seán McCárthaigh

An inquest has heard calls from the father of a young girl who died from bacterial meningitis last year for a catch-up programme to be made available to vaccinate Irish teenagers against the life-threatening infection.

However, the inquest into the death of Emily Ellen Culhane (16) from The Birches, Lower Boley, Abbeyleix, Co Laois who died from a strain of meningococcal B at Beaumont Hospital on January 5, 2025 heard such a measure had already been ruled out earlier this year.

The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) did not recommend a routine MenB vaccination programme for adolescents following a review of an outbreak of meningitis in Kent, England in March which resulted in the introduction of a targeted vaccination programme in the UK.

The inquest at Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Thursday heard MenB is a rare infection with less than 100 cases in the Republic each year which has a mortality rate of 10%-20%.

A total of 23 deaths have been recorded from MenB in the past decade, including seven among teenagers aged 15-19.

It was also noted that children born in Ireland after 2016 receive free protection against multiple strains of meningitis in a number of doses between the age of 0 and 2.

The teenager’s father, Seán Culhane, said it was clear to his family how two wonderful doctors who treated his daughter were shocked at the particular strain of meningitis with which Emily was infected.

Calling for a catch-up MenB programme for anyone born between 2008 and 2016 so that vulnerable teenagers who are considered in a high-risk category could be protected, Culhane observed: “These are kids. It’s only an eight-year period of time to make up that shortfall. Every one of these kids should be vaccinated.”

The inquest heard how the transition year student at Scoil Chríost Rí in Portlaoise, Co Laois suddenly became unwell at home on January 2, 2025.

Her mother, Bernie Moran, said her daughter had sent her a Snapchat message that morning to say that she had vomited a number of times.

Moran gave evidence that she originally believed that Emily might have food poisoning as she had eaten shellfish the previous evening at a family meal in a restaurant, especially as her husband also had similar symptoms.

Moran told coroner Clare Keane that Emily was “extremely healthy” and had looked fine and normal when she had checked on her.

While she was slightly flushed, Moran said there was nothing about her daughter that raised any concern at the time.

Moran said she heard Emily dry-retching a few times in the afternoon after which she was quiet and she assumed her daughter had fallen asleep.

When she went to check again at 5pm, however, Moran outlined how she screamed for an ambulance to be called after seeing her daughter’s vacant expression and finding her skin cold and clammy to the touch.

The inquest heard that the student was rushed to Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise where doctors recommended she be transferred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin after getting the results of a number of tests.

Moran said further scans in Beaumont showed her daughter had significant swelling on her brain.

She fought back tears as she described how doctors informed them that the damage to her daughter’s brain was “so significant that we would not be bringing Emily home.”

In reply to questions from the coroner, Moran said Emily had received all the regular childhood vaccines.

She noted she also had a flu a few weeks earlier from which she had recovered quickly.

A consultant neurologist at Beaumont, Maria Gaughan, admitted doctors were struck by the rapidity of how the meningitis in Emily’s case had developed.

She told Dr Keane that it was possible there might be a link between the respiratory illness Emily had around Christmas when she had also attended a party but that it was not possible to say if they were “necessarily relevant.”

Dr Gaughan explained the infection was carried in nasal passages with people more vulnerable to infection if they had a cold or flu.

Dr Gaughan said people usually contracted the bacteria through close physical contact with the highest risk groups children under one, teenagers and those over 85.

Another hospital consultant, James O’Rourke, said the brain injury sustained by the teenager was “devastating.”

Dr O’Rourke appeared to become emotional as he informed the coroner that he had written to the NIAC following Emily’s death about vaccines for meningitis and the lack of a catch-up programme.

He acknowledged that different countries have different approaches to vaccinate for Men B but he felt the €300 private cost of getting a catch-up vaccine in Ireland was putting people off getting it.

The consultant noted that a free MenB vaccine is currently available to students and young people in the UK.

Moran said she had been previously unaware of the ability to get a catch-up vaccination but it would have been something on her mind if she had known as “you always plan for the unexpected” and she believed it would “probably have made a difference.”

Dr Keane informed the inquest that correspondence from NIAC showed it had reviewed the issue of a MenB vaccination programme for adolescents following the outbreak in Kent but was not currently recommending the introduction of such a programme in the Republic.

However, NIAC said it would continue to review evolving epidemiology, vaccine effectiveness and possible vaccination strategies.

Dr Keane said NIAC had convened an extraordinary meeting on July 2, 2026 on the issue but concluded that the available evidence did not warrant any immediate change to existing vaccination programmes.

The coroner noted that NIAC was seeking more “carriage data” – the number of people who have the bacteria without showing signs of the infection – to have a greater understanding of strains of MenB circulating among Irish teenagers.

She said she was also informed that MenB accounts for 70% of all invasive cases in Ireland which ranged from 48 in 2016 to seven in 2021.

The inquest heard there were 38 cases of MenB last year and 11 so far in 2026.

While the highest proportion of cases affected children under 1, Dr Keane said the 15-19 age group experience a higher rate of infection than any other age group besides infants.

The coroner said a postmortem showed Emily had died from meningoencephalitis – a combination of meningitis and encephalitis.

Recording a verdict of death due to natural causes, Dr Keane said she would endorse the information heard at the inquest about ongoing epidemiological work and would convey the details of Emily’s tragic death to the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll McNeill.