A Kent nightclub at the centre of a meningitis outbreak has spoken out as health officials race to contain a rare cluster of infections. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has confirmed 29 confirmed or suspected cases, with 13 of the 18 confirmed cases caused by the meningitis B strain. All have required hospital admission, and two young people have died.
Among those struck down was 20-year-old Tyra Skinner, a Canterbury Christ Church University student, who was rushed to critical care at William Harvey hospital after suffering a pounding headache, stiff neck and excruciating pain. Her father, Dale Skinner, described the ordeal: "She could hardly move, she was in a foetal position. It was horrendous, to be honest, to see her so helpless and in so much pain." Her condition has improved but she remains hospitalised.
Health officials believe the outbreak is linked to Club Chemistry in Canterbury, with known patients having visited on 5, 6 or 7 March, when an estimated 4,800 people attended. Prof Dr Anjan Ghosh, director of public health at Kent county council, said: "What probably happened in the club is you had loads of people in close contact, probably sharing vapes, sharing drinks. It's a club setting, so probably there was intimacy. So all those things combined to contribute to the spread of this bacteria."
Nineteen-year-old Chelsea Abbott, who visited the club on 5 and 12 March, described the ease of transmission: "Everyone's just kissing each other, or you go to the smoking area and someone's like, 'have you got a vape?' because their vape died and then you share it. Once you're drunk, you'll share your vape with this person, that person, and like 10 people have had your vape."
The UKHSA was first notified on Friday 13 March and issued a public health alert two days later, after the deaths of 18-year-old Juliette Kenny and an unnamed University of Kent student. Club owner Louise Jones-Roberts said she was initially "dumbfounded" but stressed the need to inform the public: "I said, look, we've just got to tell people now what the symptoms are and what to do if they've got them." More than 9,800 courses of antibiotics and 2,360 vaccines have been administered to eligible people in Kent.
