GPs were put on alert for signs of meningitis yesterday when seven people in England and Wales died from a strain of the virus after attending the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Department of Health issued the message to GPs and hospitals, urging them to look for signs of the W135 meningococcal infection, which is not usually found in Britain.
More than 20,000 British Muslims and thousands of Muslims from all over the world travel on the annual pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, and seven people have died since the event in March.
A further 29 people in Britain have contracted the infection. They had all travelled to Mecca for the festival.
In a separate development, it was confirmed that eight children from a school in south Wales and a nurse working at a hospital in Gloucestershire have contracted tuberculosis.
A mass screening programme of pupils from the Duffryn High School, Newport, and among more than 1,000 patients and former patients from Cheltenham General Hospital is under way.