Students in Kent are to be offered a targeted vaccination against meningitis after two more cases in the deadly outbreak were confirmed.
Government scientists have said two people who died in the outbreak had bacterial strain B of the disease, for which most people have not been vaccinated.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it would launch a small vaccination programme for students who live at the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus halls of residence. The programme may be expanded amid calls for an NHS catchup vaccine programme as pharmacy stocks of the meningitis B vaccine run out.
The UKHSA said: “From 2015, the MenB vaccine has been available on the NHS as part of routine childhood immunisations and so those aged over 10 have not received it as part of the routine schedule.
“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 asses any ongoing risk to other populations.
The number of confirmed cases has increased from 13 to 15. The UKHSA said four of these cases, including the two deaths, were meningitis B, the UKHSA said. The remaining 11 cases are under investigation.
Gayatri Amirthalingam, the deputy director of immunisation and vaccine preventable diseases at the UKHSA, confirmed that people born before 2015 had not been routinely vaccinated against strain B. She said: “We have a meningococcal vaccine covering four different strains in teenagers. Usually it is given at the age of 13 or 14 years of age. It covers four main groups A, C, W and Y.”
Amirthalingam urged young people in Kent to take up the offer of antibiotics. 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 as to your loved ones, your family and your friends.”
People born before 2015 are not protected against meningitis B unless they have had the jab privately. The vaccine was introduced on the NHS for babies in 2015.
Pharmacies called for an NHS catchup vaccine programme to protect all those born before 2015 amid dwindling private supplies.
Dr Leyla Hannbeck, the chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, said the NHS should “urgently commission pharmacies to deliver a nationwide catchup 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,” she said. “Worried families must not be left to a lottery. The NHS needs to step in and commission a national pharmacy-led catchup programme now.”
Private meningitis B vaccinations cost between £100 and £120 a dose in the UK, with a full two-dose course costing about £200-£240. Boots offers two doses for £220.
A year 13 pupil in Faversham, named only as Juliette at the request of her parents, and an unnamed student at the University of Kent have died in the outbreak and others are being treated in hospital.
The archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, said: “My prayers are with the families of the two young people who have tragically died in the meningitis outbreak in Kent. My heart goes out to them in their devastating loss. I’m praying too for all those who’ve been affected by the outbreak, and for everyone working so hard to care for them and protect local communities.”
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”.
Amirthalingam confirmed that the disease could be spread by sharing vapes, after a mother of one of those in hospital with the disease said she suspected her daughter caught it from a vape.
Amirthalingam said: “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.”
Eliza Gil, a clinical lecturer specialising in infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “These students won’t have any immunity to meningitis B.”
She told 5 Live: “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.”
On vaping, Gil said: “Sharing anything that goes in your mouth is a potential risk factor for transmitting a mouth-living bacteria. So for definite I would be not recommending vape sharing in general from a hygiene point of view. But also in this context it seems an easy enough thing to stop doing, even if we’re not sure if it was causative in this case.”
Helen Whately, the Conservative MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, backed calls for a catchup vaccination campaign for young people. Speaking to Times Radio, Whately, a former health minister, said: “One of the things the UKHSA will need to look at is if there is now a greater risk around this outbreak – and in future – should there be some kind of vaccination catchup for that group.”
The UKHSA denied there had been a delay in the response 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.”
Prof Paul Hunter, an expert in infectious diseases at the University of East Anglia, said doctors could have been informed earlier of the outbreak. 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.”
He added: “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.”
Two sites in Kent have been open for the public to collect antibiotics and a further two were planned to open on Tuesday morning.
Louise Jones-Roberts, the owner of Club Chemistry, told the Press Association that more than 2,000 people would have visited the venue over the three dates.
