Up to 5,000 Kent students to be offered meningitis vaccine with potential for expansion

A targeted vaccination campaign launched in response to a meningitis outbreak in Kent will ‘initially’ see up to 5,000 university students offered a jab.

In an update this morning the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said there were now nine laboratory cases of meningococcal disease confirmed and 11 under investigation – bringing the total to 20.

Six of the confirmed cases have been identified as group B meningitis (MenB), meaning most university-aged people would not have had a vaccine. Two people have died during the outbreak, with no further deaths since the last update.

Plans for a ‘small, targeted’ MenB vaccination programme were unveiled on Tuesday, with the government confirming that students who lived in the Canterbury Campus Halls of Residence at the University of Kent would be contacted directly for a vaccine.

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Today, the UKHSA said it was expected that up to 5,000 students will be contacted and offered the vaccine, but it also noted that it would ‘continue to assess ongoing risk to other populations and the programme may be extended’.

Vaccines are available to prevent some types of meningitis, including against Meningococcal group B (MenB) for babies, and the MenACWY vaccine for protection against MenA, MenC, MenW, and MenY offered to teenagers in school Years 9 and 10.

The vaccine for MenB – which the UKHSA says can circulate in young adults – was only introduced for babies at two months, three months and 12 months in 2015.

The government said the targeted MenB vaccination programme was being launched ‘given the severity of the outbreak’ and as an ‘additional precautionary measure’ in the coming days.

Since the outbreak came to light at the weekend, the government and NHS have been organising antibiotics for students in the area to help ‘limit the spread’.

More than 2,500 doses have been given to students, close contacts and others, including some of those who attended a nightclub – Club Chemistry – at which some of the confirmed cases had visited between 5 and 7 March prior to becoming unwell.

From today GPs across the country will be advised to prescribe antibiotics to anyone who visited the nightclub and to University of Kent students, ‘if they have been asked to seek preventative treatment’.

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‘This is so that anyone who has travelled home, or away from Kent, can easily access this important preventative treatment close to them,’ the UKHSA said.

Trish Mannes, UKHSA regional deputy director for the South East, said: ‘Around 2,500 doses of antibiotics have now been administered across sites in Kent and we continue to encourage close contacts to come forward for the treatment. This includes those offered at the University of Kent and anyone who visited Club Chemistry between 5-7 March.

‘This is the main intervention that will help protect people and halt the spread of the outbreak.’

She added: ‘As a further precaution and together with the NHS, we are beginning to roll out a targeted MenB vaccination programme. This will initially be offered to 5,000 university of Kent students resident at the Canterbury campus, with the possibility that it may be extended, as it is kept under continual review.’

Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, health and social care secretary Wes Streeting paid tribute to the two young people who have died and described the outbreak as ‘unprecedented’ and a ‘rapidly developing situation’.

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He reiterated that a targeted vaccination programme for some students would begin in the coming days and said he would also be asking the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) – which advises the government on vaccinations – to ‘reexamine eligibility’ for meningitis vaccines more widely.

Also on Tuesday, registered nurse and charity director at Meningitis Now Sue Rogers stressed the need for greater public awareness of meningitis and wider vaccination against the group B strain.