Students in Kent are to be offered targeted vaccinations against meningitis B after two more cases were confirmed in a deadly outbreak, with pharmacies running out of vaccine doses. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed that two people who died had bacterial strain B of the disease, for which most people have not been vaccinated.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting described the outbreak as unprecedented and rapidly developing in a Commons update. He confirmed that the UKHSA has launched a small vaccination programme for students living at the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus halls of residence, which may be expanded amid calls for an NHS catch-up programme as pharmacy stocks of the meningitis B (MenB) vaccine dwindle.
MenB vaccines have only been given to young children on the NHS since 2015, leaving those over 10 vulnerable unless privately vaccinated. The number of confirmed cases has risen from 13 to 15, with four involving meningitis B, including the two deaths. The remaining 11 cases are under investigation.
Streeting said French health authorities alerted the UK to a second confirmed case in France involving a University of Kent student. It also emerged that one affected student travelled to London and fell ill there. The UKHSA is treating the outbreak as a national incident, with experts calling it a “super-spreader” event.
Pharmacies are urging an NHS catch-up programme for those born before 2015. Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, said supplies are running low and worried families must not be left to a lottery. Private MenB vaccinations cost between £100 and £120 per dose.
The UKHSA is advising anyone who visited Club Chemistry in Canterbury on 5, 6 or 7 March to seek preventive antibiotics. Deputy director Gayatri Amirthalingam urged young people to take up the offer, saying it is safe for them to return home after taking antibiotics.
