Kent students to be offered targeted meningitis B jabs after two more cases | Kent

Kent students are to be offered a targeted meningitis B vaccination after two more cases of the deadly outbreak were confirmed and pharmacies ran out of vaccine doses.

Government scientists said two people who died in the outbreak had the B bacterial strain of the disease, against which most people have not been vaccinated.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting described it as an unprecedented and rapidly developing outbreak in a Commons update.

He also confirmed that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) had launched a small vaccination program for students residing in halls of residence at the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus. It could be extended amid calls for an NHS catch-up vaccination program as pharmaceutical stocks of the meningitis B (MenB) vaccine run out.

MenB vaccines have only been given to young children in the NHS since 2015, meaning everyone over 10 is vulnerable unless they have received the vaccine privately.

The UKHSA said: “Given the seriousness of the situation, a small targeted vaccination program will begin in the coming days among students residing in halls of residence at the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus. The vaccination program may be expanded further as UKHSA continues to assess any continued risks to other populations.”

The number of confirmed cases increased from 13 to 15. Four, including the two deaths, involved meningitis B, the UKHSA said. The remaining 11 cases are under investigation.

Streeting said French health authorities had alerted the UK of a second confirmed case in France involving a student who attended the University of Kent.

It also emerged on Tuesday that one of the 15 people affected was a University of Kent student who traveled to London, fell ill there and sought help at a hospital in the capital on Sunday or Monday.

The severity of the outbreak, which experts are calling a “super-spreader” event, means the UKHSA has been treating the Kent outbreak as a national rather than a local incident since it began late last week, sources said.

Pharmacies have called for an NHS catch-up vaccination program to protect everyone born before 2015 amid dwindling private supplies.

Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, said the NHS should “urgently task pharmacies with implementing a national catch-up vaccination program for university students and teenagers born before 2015”.

“Pharmacies, particularly in Kent, are experiencing an increase in demand for private meningitis B vaccines. But stocks are low and some pharmacies are already out of stock,” she said. “Worried families must not be left in a lottery. The NHS must step up and implement a national pharmacy-led catch-up program now.”

Private meningitis B vaccinations cost between £100 and £120 per dose in the UK, with a full two-dose course costing between £200 and £240. Boots offers two doses for £220.

A year 13 student in Faversham, named only as Juliette at the request of her parents, and an unnamed University of Kent student have died in the outbreak and others are being treated in hospital.

UKHSA deputy director for immunization and vaccine-preventable diseases Gayatri Amirthalingam urged young people in Kent to take up the offer of antibiotics.

When asked if it was safe for students to return home, she said: “If you are a university student and have been offered antibiotics, or anyone else who has been offered antibiotics, please take them immediately and you will be perfectly welcome to return home. This is an effective measure to protect yourself, but also… your loved ones, your family and your friends.”

Streeting told MPs: “The onset of the disease is often sudden and early diagnosis and treatment with antibiotics is vital. It does not spread very easily.

“The bacteria is transmitted to others after a long period of close contact. For example by living with someone in shared accommodation, by kissing for a long time or by sharing vapes and drinks.

“However, the symptoms can also be easily confused with other common conditions, even with something like a hangover.”

The UKHSA is advising anyone who visited Club Chemistry in Canterbury on March 5, 6 or 7 to come forward for preventive antibiotic treatment as a “precautionary measure”.

Club Chemistry owner Louise Jones-Roberts said more than 2,000 people were estimated to have visited the venue over the three dates. The club closed voluntarily.

The mother of one of the people hospitalized with the disease said she suspected her daughter contracted it through vaping.

Amirthalingam said, “Meningococcal disease can spread through a number of different routes. Vaping is just one. It is closely related to close contact. There are many other activities that can also promote the spread of this infection. Not specifically vaping.”

Eliza Gil, a clinical lecturer specializing in infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “These students will have no immunity to meningitis B.”

She told 5 Live: “Currently, students are not being offered this vaccination because the risk has been historically low and also because the protection is imperfect and does not last very long. So it was felt, given the risk, that it would not be beneficial for students to routinely offer the male vaccination.”

The UKHSA has denied there was a delay in responding to the outbreak. Amirthalingam told Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t believe there has been any delay in terms of the public health response.

“With these people, some of whom are extremely ill in hospital, it can be difficult to try to get detailed tracking information, but this was done very quickly over the weekend to be able to give this information and identify links within 24 hours.”

Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, said doctors could have known about the outbreak earlier. He said: “It’s not just about informing the public. Symptoms of the disease can be very mild. If they [doctors] know there is a meningococcal problem in the area, they are more likely to take these early symptoms seriously.

“The problem with meningococcal disease is that you can go from a relatively mild condition to a near-death illness in a matter of hours. It’s extremely important that you make this information very clear, very quickly.

“When I used to do this job a few years ago, I think we would have made it public when we informed local GPs that there was such a problem, which might have been quicker.”

Two sites in Kent have been opened to the public to collect antibiotics and two more were opened on Tuesday.