Kent Meningitis

UKHSA figures show the number of cases has fallen to 23 overallThe meningitis B vaccination programme will be expanded to include year 11 pupils at schools affected by the outbreak in Kent, health officials have said.Figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show the number of cases of the illness have fallen. Continue reading...

UKHSA says on Monday morning there has been no change since 20 cases were confirmed on SundayThere have been no new cases of meningitis linked to an outbreak in Kent reported, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.As of 12.30pm on Sunday, 20 cases had been confirmed, with a further nine under investigation. This was no change on the previous day, the UKHSA said in a statement on Monday morning. Continue reading...

Three cases previously confirmed reclassified by UK Health Security Agency after further testingThe number of confirmed meningitis cases linked to the Kent outbreak has fallen from 23 to 20.The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said on Sunday that three cases previously thought confirmed had been downgraded after further testing. Continue reading...

How infections linked to a nightclub escalated into a public health incident requiring a national response is a puzzle experts are still grappling withTyra Skinner had already been violently sick three times when doctors at Kent’s William Harvey hospital realised something was badly wrong. The 20-year-old was rushed into critical care, racked with a pounding headache, a stiff neck and excruciating pain – the hallmark symptoms of meningitis, the disease that had already claimed two young lives in Kent.“She could hardly move, she was in a foetal position. She was so cramped up and sore,” her father, Dale Skinner, 42, told the Guardian. “It was horrendous, to be honest, to see her so helpless and in so much pain.” Continue reading...

Scientific advisory committee to examine impact of offering routine MenB jabs to wider range of peopleThe Kent meningitis outbreak: what is happening and why?Experts are considering expanding the meningitis B vaccination eligibility in response to the fatal outbreak of the disease in Kent.The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s review comes after the health secretary, Wes Streeting, asked it to to “re-examine eligibility for meningitis vaccines” for a wider range of people than those who currently qualify. Continue reading...

Spread appears to have slowed, with just two new cases reported in past day bringing total to 29The Kent meningitis outbreak may have reached its peak, after only two new cases were reported by officials on Friday.The UK Health and Security Agency said that as of 12.30pm on Thursday, there were 18 confirmed and 11 probable cases of meningitis linked to the Kent outbreak, taking the total number of people with the disease to 29. Of the confirmed cases, 13 were meningitis B. Continue reading...

What causes meningitis, what the public health response has been and how the situation differs from Covid The deadly outbreak of meningitis in Kent has fuelled concerns about how far the disease will spread and seen the return of people wearing masks and queueing for vaccines. The scenes are reminiscent of the Covid crisis, but meningitis is very different. Here we look at how the outbreak unfolded. Continue reading...

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”. Continue reading...

There is growing confidence that the 20 people diagnosed with the illness have not infected anyone outside the areaHealth officials increasingly believe they have contained the fatal outbreak of meningitis in Kent, with no cases emerging that are not linked to the original cluster of 20.In another boost to efforts to contain the infection, the bug that caused it has been identified as a known strain of meningitis B, the Guardian understands. Continue reading...

Figure up from 15, says UK Health Security Agency, as thousands of students to be offered vaccines in coming daysThe number of cases of meningitis being investigated by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in Kent has risen to 20, up from 15 previously, the body said on Wednesday.Thousands of students in Kent are to be offered vaccines in the coming days as health chiefs deal with an “unprecedented” and “explosive” outbreak of meningitis. Continue reading...

The cases recorded so far have all been linked to a nightclub popular with students in Canterbury on 5-7 MarchTwo young people have died in an outbreak of meningitis in Kent as private supplies of vaccines run out. Here’s what we know about how the disease spread and what the authorities did to tackle it. Continue reading...

UKHSA says strain involved in outbreak that has killed two people is one that most people are not vaccinated againstGovernment scientists have identified the type of meningitis behind a fatal outbreak in Kent as a strain that most people have not be vaccinated against.Gayatri Amirthalingam, the deputy director of the immunisation and vaccine preventable diseases at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), said tests showed it was strain B of the virus. Continue reading...

A year 13 pupil and a University of Kent student have died after contracting the disease, while 11 people remain seriously ill in hospital A school pupil has been confirmed as the second person to have died after an outbreak of meningitis in Kent, an MP has said.Over the weekend it was reported that a University of Kent student was one of two people to have died after contracting the disease, while 11 more people were seriously ill in hospital. Continue reading...

Students in Canterbury given antibiotics for fast-acting and invasive meningococcal disease, says UKHSATwo people have died and 11 are reportedly seriously ill in hospital after an outbreak of a rare form of invasive meningitis at the University of Kent.The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it had provided antibiotics to students in the Canterbury area after it detected 13 cases of invasive meningococcal disease, a combination of meningitis and septicaemia. Continue reading...