Students in halls of residence at the University of Kent in Canterbury are to be offered the Meningitis B vaccine within days, Health Secretary Wes Streeting told MPs on 16 March. He called the outbreak behind the decision “unprecedented” and a “rapidly developing situation.”
Two young people have died. One of them was 18-year-old Juliette. Her father told the BBC the family are “beyond devastated and they have no words to express their loss.”
What the numbers show
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) had been notified of 15 cases of invasive meningococcal disease with links to Canterbury as of 17:00 the previous day, up from 13 reported earlier. Every patient has been hospitalised. Four cases are confirmed as MenB, with 11 more under investigation, and the two deaths belong to this cluster, Streeting said.
Most cases trace back to the Club Chemistry nightclub on 5, 6 and 7 March and the networks around it. The club has closed voluntarily. Two cases involve sixth formers in Year 13, and one of them has died.
MenB is the most common strain of bacterial meningitis in the UK, causing more than 80% of invasive infections, according to BBC health correspondent James Gallagher. Streeting called it “uncommon” in this form but “a serious and particularly lethal strain.” Illness often begins suddenly, he said, and the symptoms can be “easily mistaken” for other conditions, even a hangover.
Why not every student is covered
Routine MenB vaccination began in 2015, so older teenagers were never included, though the shot can be had privately. Streeting said eligibility will be re-examined. People at the front of the antibiotics queue on campus told the BBC they worried they would not have been vaccinated because of their age.
Antibiotics and the timeline
UKHSA learned of the first case on 13 March, Streeting said. French authorities then alerted it to a second confirmed case, in a person who had attended the university. Both lived in private accommodation, and no link between them was apparent at that point.
The agency set up a full-scale response at 10:00 on Sunday. Antibiotics were in place by 17:00 and a public health alert went out at 18:00. So far 700 doses have been given. Four centres in Canterbury are handing out antibiotics to anyone who may have been in close contact or who went to the club. Free antibiotics are also on offer to anyone who attended Club Chemistry on those three nights.
“I am confident UKHSA acted as quickly and as competently as possible,” Streeting said.
Some students disagree. One said they were “definitely told too late.” Another got an email at 22:00 on Sunday and until then “didn’t know that people had died or that it was that serious.” Rumours of sick students had been moving around for several days.
How it spreads
Prof Anjan Ghosh, director of public health at Kent County Council, tried to calm fears. “This is not like COVID,” he said. “It does not spread that easily.” Bacteria pass between people only through prolonged close contact, such as kissing or sharing vapes and drinks. Parents have no reason to keep children from school, he said, unless they have been in close contact or the school says otherwise.
A petition from Kent students calls for a temporary campus closure, saying in-person exams leave them choosing between their health and their grades. The university said its campus “remains open” on UKHSA guidance.
At Westgate Hall in Canterbury, normally a market venue, a pop-up clinic has opened. Student Riley McMillan, who was at the club, picked up his tablets there. “Just makes sense to take precautions,” he said.
