Targeted Vaccination Programme Launched at University of Kent
Students in Kent are to be offered a targeted vaccination against meningitis B following confirmation of two additional cases in a deadly outbreak, which has also led to pharmacies running out of vaccine supplies.
Government scientists have identified that two individuals who died during the outbreak were infected with bacterial strain B of meningitis, a strain for which most people have not been vaccinated.
The health secretary, Wes Streeting, described the situation as an unprecedented and rapidly evolving outbreak during a Commons update.
He confirmed that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has initiated a small vaccination programme for students residing in halls of residence at the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus. This programme may be expanded in response to calls for an NHS catch-up vaccination initiative, as private pharmacy stocks of the meningitis B (MenB) vaccine are depleting.
MenB vaccines have been administered on the NHS only to young children since 2015, leaving individuals over the age of 10 vulnerable unless they have received the vaccine privately.
The UKHSA stated:
"Given the severity of the situation, a small targeted vaccination programme will begin starting with students resident at Canterbury campus halls of residence at the University of Kent in the coming days. The vaccination programme may be expanded further as UKHSA continues to assess any ongoing risk to other populations."
The number of confirmed cases has risen from 13 to 15. Four of these, including the two fatalities, involved meningitis B, according to the UKHSA. The remaining 11 cases are still under investigation.
Streeting also noted that French health authorities had informed the UK of a second confirmed case in France involving a student who had attended the University of Kent.
It was further revealed on Tuesday that one of the 15 affected individuals was a University of Kent student who traveled to London, became ill there, and sought medical assistance at a hospital in the capital on Sunday or Monday.
Due to the seriousness of the outbreak, which experts have described as a “super-spreader” event, the UKHSA has treated the Kent outbreak as a national incident rather than a local one since its emergence late last week, sources indicated.
Pharmacies Call for NHS Catch-Up Vaccine Programme
Pharmacies have urged the NHS to implement a catch-up vaccine programme to protect all individuals born before 2015 amid dwindling private supplies of the MenB vaccine.
Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, stated:
"The NHS should urgently commission pharmacies to deliver a nationwide catch-up vaccination programme targeted at university students and teenagers born before 2015.
Pharmacies, especially in Kent, are seeing a surge in demand for private meningitis B vaccinations. But supplies are running low with some pharmacies already out of stock.
Worried families must not be left to a lottery. The NHS needs to step in and commission a national pharmacy-led catch-up programme now."
Private meningitis B vaccinations in the UK cost between £100 and £120 per dose, with a full two-dose course costing approximately £200 to £240. Boots offers two doses for £220.
Fatalities and Hospitalisations
A year 13 pupil in Faversham, identified only as Juliette at her parents’ request, and an unnamed University of Kent student have died in the outbreak, with others currently receiving hospital treatment.
The UKHSA’s deputy director of immunisation and vaccine-preventable diseases, Gayatri Amirthalingam, urged young people in Kent to accept the offer of antibiotics.
When asked if it was safe for students to return home, she said:
"If you are a university student and you’ve been offered antibiotics, or anyone else who’s been offered antibiotics, please take that immediately and it will be absolutely fine for you to return home. It’s an effective measure for protecting yourself, but also … your loved ones, your family and your friends."
Streeting told MPs:
"The onset of illness is often sudden and early diagnosis and treatment with antibiotics are vital. It doesn’t spread very easily.
The bacteria is passed to others after a long period of close contact. For example with living with someone in shared accommodation, through prolonged kissing or sharing vapes and drinks.
However, the symptoms are also easily mistaken for other common conditions, even for something like a hangover."
Precautionary Measures and Club Chemistry
The UKHSA is advising anyone who visited Club Chemistry in Canterbury on 5, 6, or 7 March to come forward for preventive antibiotic treatment as a precautionary measure.
Louise Jones-Roberts, owner of Club Chemistry, stated that more than 2,000 people visited the venue over those three dates. The club has voluntarily closed.
The mother of one of the patients currently hospitalised with the disease expressed her concerns.
Amirthalingam commented on transmission routes:
"Meningococcal disease can be spread through a number of different routes. Vaping is just one. It is very much linked to close contact. There are plenty of other activities that can also promote the spread of this infection. Not specifically vaping."
Expert Opinions on Immunity and Vaccination
Eliza Gil, a clinical lecturer specialising in infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, explained:
"These students won’t have any immunity to meningitis B."
She added:
"Currently students aren’t offered it because the risk has historically been low and also because the protection is imperfect and not very long-lived. So it was felt on balance of risk, that it wouldn’t be of benefit to students to routinely offer MenB vaccination."
Response Timing and Communication
The UKHSA denied any delay in responding to the outbreak. Amirthalingam told Radio 4’s Today programme:
"I don’t believe there’s been any delay in terms of the public health response.
With these individuals, some of whom are extremely unwell in hospital, it can be difficult to try and ascertain detailed follow-up information, but that was done very rapidly over the weekend to be able to give that information out and identify the links within 24 hours."
Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, suggested that doctors could have been informed earlier. He said:
"It’s not just about informing the public. The symptoms of the disease can be very mild. If they [doctors] know that there is a problem with meningococcal disease in the area, then they’re more likely to take those early symptoms seriously.
The problem with meningococcal disease is that you can go from being relatively mild to on death’s door within a matter of a few hours. It is critically important that you make that information very clear, very soon.
When I used to do this work some years back, I think we would have gone public at the point that we informed local GPs that there was such a problem, which might well have been quicker."
Antibiotic Distribution Sites
Two sites in Kent have been opened for the public to collect antibiotics, with an additional two sites opened on Tuesday to facilitate access.
