Hundreds of students at University of Kent take up offer of meningitis B vaccination amid ‘very unusual outbreak’
The number of cases of meningitis linked to an outbreak in Kent has risen to 27, up from 20, the UK Health Security Agency has said.
Prof Robin May, the chief scientific officer at the UKHSA, said it was a “very unusual outbreak”.
To date, 600 meningitis B vaccines have been administered at the University of Kent Canterbury campus after hundreds of students joined a queue outside the campus sports centre. One school pupil and one university student died and 18 more cases were being investigated by the UKHSA, with some young people placed in induced comas.
The UKHSA issued an alert for the NHS across England on Wednesday about signs and symptoms of meningitis to look out for, though this does not signal the outbreak is going to spread nationwide.
