Long queues of students, many in face masks, formed on the Canterbury campus of the University of Kent on Monday morning, waiting for antibiotics. Two young people had died of meningitis and 11 more were in hospital.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it had been notified of 13 cases of invasive meningococcal disease between March 13 and March 15. That is a combination of meningitis and septicaemia. One of the dead was a University of Kent student, 21 years old and an undergraduate. The other was Juliette, an 18-year-old sixth-former at Queen Elizabeth’s grammar school (QEGS) in Faversham. Two more schools, Simon Langton grammar school for boys in Canterbury and Norton Knatchbull school in Ashford, confirmed that a Year 13 student at each was in hospital with the illness.
A nightclub link and mass antibiotics
The outbreak is believed to be tied to Club Chemistry, a nightclub in Canterbury, from where it spread among students. UKHSA is offering free antibiotics at temporary sites to anyone who went there on March 5, 6 or 7, and has urged over 30,000 people to collect them from four sites across the city. Club owner Louise Jones-Roberts told the Press Association that more than 2,000 people would have visited over those three days.
“I’m devastated. I can’t imagine what the families are going through,” she said. “Meningitis affects healthy, young people and this is devastating.”
The agency told the BBC on March 17 that the strain is Meningitis B, which experts describe as the most common cause of meningococcal meningitis in Britain. Earlier statements said the strain had not been identified. UKHSA called the outbreak “particularly large” and “unprecedented in recent years”. Its deputy director, Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, told BBC Radio 5 Live that it was “very much contained in the local area in Canterbury and Kent”.
Campus and families
Teaching at the university has ended for the term and exams are running. Every assessment due this week moves online, which affects about 1,700 students, but the campus is open. “It’s not a Covid lockdown situation,” a spokesperson said. UKHSA worked with the university to send advice letters to all 16,000 students, though only close contacts of those affected were to receive antibiotics.
The university said it was “deeply saddened” by the death of its student, and that “the safety of our students and staff remains our highest priority.”
Law student Millie Inglis, 21, said she got a message to collect antibiotics. “We were just pretty shocked. It just feels like a repeat, it feels very Covid-esque,” she said. Kirab Rhoda, 18, a law and criminology student from Uganda, said her mother had offered to book her a flight home, but she felt reassured by the handout of medicine.
QEGS head teacher Amelia McIlroy said Juliette had been at the school for seven years. “She was incredibly kind, thoughtful and intelligent,” McIlroy said. “Her beautiful smile, her loving nature and her sense of fun will be hugely missed.” Juliette’s father told the BBC the family were “beyond devastated”.
Helen Whately, MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, said she had spoken to health secretary Wes Streeting and was pressing the NHS for more information, citing rumours about where the young people may have picked up the infection.
Symptoms to watch
Trish Mannes, UKHSA south-east deputy director, warned that the disease “can progress rapidly”. Students can miss the early signs, she said, because they look like a bad cold, flu or even a hangover. Checking on a friend who goes to bed unwell, she added, “could save their life.”
Symptoms include a rash, sudden fever, severe headaches, a stiff neck, vomiting and diarrhoea, joint and muscle pain, sensitivity to bright lights, cold hands and feet, seizures, confusion and extreme sleepiness. Anyone with them should seek medical help urgently. Consult your doctor for medical advice.
Sources
- Two dead and 11 seriously ill in meningitis outbreak at University of Kent
- 2 dead, 11 hospitalised due to meningitis outbreak in Britain
- Meningitis outbreak at University of Kent and three schools kills two young people with 11 in hospital
Sources
- Two dead and 11 seriously ill in meningitis outbreak at University of…
- 2 dead, 11 hospitalised due to meningitis outbreak in Britain
