Killer Kent Meningitis B pressure might have developed to grow to be ‘higher at transmitting’, scientists warn

The deadly strain of meningitis that left two dead in Kent is under urgent investigation over fears that the disease has evolved to spread more quickly. 

Health officials are racing to understand whether this variant of meningitis B has evolved in a way that allows it to spread more easily between people – raising fresh concerns about how quickly the disease could take hold.

The outbreak has already been linked to 27 confirmed or suspected cases, with nine of the 15 confirmed infections identified as meningitis B. 

Now, scientists are probing whether this particular strain has developed new traits that make it more transmissible than those previously seen.

Experts at the UK Health Security Agency are analysing bacterial samples taken from patients, carrying out detailed genetic sequencing to uncover any changes in the organism’s structure. 

The aim is to determine whether mutations could explain the unusually high number of linked cases.

Early indications suggest the strain bears similarities to one that has been circulating for around five years, though officials stress that firm conclusions have yet to be reached.

Professor Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UKHSA, described the situation as highly out of the ordinary, pointing to the scale and clustering of cases as a major cause for concern.

‘Typically, you would expect to see sporadic cases of meningitis, typically individual patients,’ May told BBC Breakfast. ‘Most days, actually, we would see one in the UK. This is obviously a much larger number.

‘What is particularly remarkable about this case, and unexpected about this case, is the large number of cases all originating from what seems to be a single event.

‘There are two possible reasons for that. One is that there might be something about the kind of behaviours that individual people are doing. The other possibility is the bacteria itself may have evolved to be better at transmitting.’

The number of meningitis cases in the Kent outbreak rose to 27 today including one in London, as three university cheerleaders were in hospital and experts investigated why the disease has spread so quickly.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced total cases had increased by seven in its latest update today – up from yesterday’s total of 20, and 15 on Tuesday.

A worker at a Morrisons distribution centre at Fleet End in Sittingbourne was also confirmed to have contracted meningitis after going to Club Chemistry in Canterbury.

The UKHSA said some 15 laboratory cases had been confirmed and 12 notifications remained under investigation, bringing the total to 27. Nine of the 15 confirmed cases are known to be caused by meningitis B (menB), and the death toll remains at two.

Health bosses are also bracing for the potential impact of students travelling home to their families across the UK and abroad for the Easter holidays over the coming days. 

The UKHSA said cases have been confirmed in students at four Kent schools – and another at a ‘higher education institution’ in London, directly linked to the outbreak.

This was later revealed to be Escape Studios, a specialist college next to The O2 in North Greenwich, which offers degrees in animation and games. It comes as:

• European health chiefs put doctors on alert to look out for cases on the continent;
• A pharmacy industry group says Brits are abusing staff with no vaccines in stock; 
• Experts investigate whether the bacteria has become able to transmit more easily;
• Health Secretary Wes Streeting says he is widening access to the menB vaccine; 
• The UKHSA urged students to still come forward for antibiotics and vaccines; and
• A Kent health official said he cannot yet confirm the outbreak has been contained.

Medics have also said they are amazed by the speed of spread of cases – with Dr Bharat Pankhania, senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School, telling the Daily Mail: ‘I’ve been a doctor for 40 years and I’ve never seen this before.

‘Normally, I come across two or three linked cases, four maybe, spread over several weeks. Having so many cases emerging from one place in a short time is highly unusual and has never been seen in the UK before.’

Olivia Parkins, 18, part of the cheerleading society at the University of Kent, said there have been three confirmed cases within the group – all of whom are now in hospital.

The student, who studies classical civilisation, attended the campus this morning where she queued for a vaccine. She added: ‘I know quite a lot of people who are in hospital with it – a lot of people from the cheerleading society which I’m part of. 

‘I also live in the block where the outbreak happened. It was one of the two blocks that had to come in to get antibiotics.’

Ms Parkins said she was at her home in Bromley when she heard about the outbreak. The student said she has been in contact with the confirmed cases, adding: ‘So far they’re okay.’

She added that there has been ‘good communication’ surrounding the outbreak.

Meanwhile ‘frustrated’ Brits are abusing and threatening pharmacists as they desperately try to book private meningitis vaccine appointments after stocks ran out nationally.

The National Pharmacy Association said tempers were boiling over at some of the 6,000 stores it represents amid ‘anxiety’ due to the escalating outbreak in Kent.

Some patients said pharmacies were cancelling £220 appointments at the last minute because they have no jabs left and cannot get any from wholesalers.

One tweeted: ‘I’m in Kent and had no idea my teens were vulnerable to this menB. I booked vaccines this am with the pharmacy at £220. Pharmacy just cancelled them because there is no vaccine in stock and they can’t get hold of any.’

Another wrote: ‘Every single pharmacy I find is swamped meaning I cant vaccinate before the month ends. They’re also swamped in non-Kent areas as local families aim to insulate themselves.’

And a third posted: ‘Calling every pharmacy I can find to get the menB vaccine because brother and I are both high risk and it’s sold out everywhere.’

Sanjeev Panesar from the National Pharmacy Association told BBC Breakfast: ‘We are seeing a high influx of enquiries from patients and the public about vaccinations and just general healthcare advice and support and symptoms that are similar.

‘In some very small cases there are, we are hearing anecdotes of abuse, threatening behaviour from some cohorts of patients because of obviously that anxiety and that frustration because there is no vaccine availability nationally.

‘So what we’d ask is for the public, please be understanding, we’re here to support you, we are a provider of NHS services and we understand the frustration, but we will signpost you and care for you where we can.’

The Kent and Medway Integrated Care System said in an update today that 930 vaccines have been given as part of the University of Kent programme; while 8,559 antibiotics have been handed out at five sites in Canterbury, Ashford and Thanet.

UKHSA said the NHS Kent and Medway website will be updated this afternoon with vaccination sites for all those eligible for a menB jab.

It added that 20,000 vaccines from the NHS supply will be made available to the private market, to ease current demand experienced by pharmacies. These will enter the private market within around 48 hours, it said.

Some sports events in Kent have been cancelled because of the outbreak, including Canterbury Parkrun which was due to be held at the university campus on Saturday.

Canterbury Rugby Club has suspended all rugby matches this weekend, including hosting a first-team match against Oxford Harlequins in National League 2 East. The club said in a statement that the move was ‘the most responsible course of action’.

Meanwhile the Kent Disability Football League confirmed a tournament due to be held this weekend had been called off, while St Lawrence and Highland Court Cricket Club said it had cancelled training.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) confirmed it is ‘monitoring the situation through event-based surveillance’ and urged doctors to ask patients showing meningitis symptoms whether they had recently travelled to Kent.

But the body also reassured the public that the risk of meningitis to the general population in the European Union and European Economic Area is ‘very low’.

This follows French authorities saying a person who was admitted to hospital with meningitis in France with links to the Kent outbreak is now in a ‘stable’ condition.

The ECDC said an average of about 2,000 meningitis cases are reported each year across the region and the disease is fatal for around 10 per cent of these.

In 2024 there were 2,263 cases reported across the EU and EEA including 202 fatalities; while in 2023 there were 1,895 cases including 200 deaths.

MenB – the strain involved in the outbreak in Canterbury – accounted for 55 per cent of cases in the continent in 2024 and 57 per cent in 2023, the ECDC added.

An ECDC statement said: ‘Clinicians should be aware of the possibility of meningitis in returning travellers and include travel history in their assessment of invasive meningococcal disease cases, particularly regarding travelling to the Kent region.

‘Healthcare workers in EU/EEA countries managing suspected or confirmed cases should follow required infection prevention and control protocols, while countries are encouraged to continue surveillance, including molecular surveillance and antibiotic susceptibility testing, to support outbreak control.’

It added: ‘ECDC is in contact with UK and EU/EEA national authorities in relation to this event and is monitoring the situation through event-based surveillance and integrated epidemiological and genomic surveillance, and is performing regular evaluations.’

Mr Streeting visited the University of Kent this morning, making a trip to the sport centre where hundreds of students have queued up to receive vaccines and collect antibiotics.

During the visit, Mr Streeting walked around to meet staff and students.

He said he was widening student access to the vaccine, telling BBC Newsbeat: ‘Today I’m announcing that anyone who was at Club Chemistry in Canterbury from March 5 should come forward for both the antibiotics and the vaccine.

‘Anyone who was previously been offered the antibiotic can now get the vaccine, that will include more students at the University of Kent, at Canterbury Christ Church University and the sixth formers at the four schools where we’ve seen confirmed or suspected cases.’

Mr Streeting also told reporters in Canterbury that the outbreak of meningitis ‘isn’t like Covid’, adding that the risk to the general public is ‘extremely low’.

He said: ‘I also want to reassure people, that in terms of the way in which this infection and disease spreads, it is through close personal contact. We’ve got effective treatment through the antibiotic, we’ve got effective vaccination, which is up and running.

‘All of those things taken together mean that the risks, even for students here in Canterbury, are relatively low. And, of course, the general public across the country, who are also watching with interest and concern, the risks to the general public is extremely low.’

Mr Streeting said it is ‘understandable’ that people might be worried given the fatalities. He added: ‘The way in which this disease spreads is from close personal contact … this isn’t like Covid.’

He also told reporters: ‘It’s great to see the rapid mobilisation of the vaccination centre here in Canterbury.

‘We’ve got a steady stream of students coming through – over 600 vaccines administered on the first afternoon, which is really encouraging.’

He said he would expect the number of suspected cases for meningitis to rise, saying: ‘I would expect … the number of suspected cases to increase further in the coming days as this has a seven to 10-day incubation period.

‘I would also expect that around the country, we may see the places reported, which are completely unrelated to the Canterbury outbreak, because we tend to have at least 350 meningitis B cases in any given year.’

Meanwhile mother-of-six Khali Goodwin, from Herne Bay, said the condition of her daughter Keeleigh was improving, after the 21-year-old was left fighting for her life after contracting menB at Club Chemistry.

Explaining that she was now trying to get the vaccine for her other children, Ms Goodwin told the Daily Mail: ‘I am petrified, I can’t go through this again. I have tried to get my 14-year-old daughter the vaccine, but I have been told she’s too young.

‘I get that university students are a priority at the moment, but they need to backdate it for all the children who have missed out. I have even tried privately but I still can’t get it.

‘That would cost £200, and for a single mum, we would probably have to eat beans on toast for the rest of the month but that would be nothing to prevent what we have been through.

‘We have been extremely lucky that Keeleigh, that she is doing well now. But it is a killer virus, they need to act.’

Some 40 MPs have signed a letter to Mr Streeting urging the Government and the UK UKHSA to work with universities on a catch-up vaccination programme for meningitis.

In the letter, posted on X by Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield, MPs said: ‘The need for an emergency vaccination in Canterbury highlights our broader concern of the ongoing risk that [meningitis B] poses to students and young people.’

MPs added: ‘MenB is now the leading cause of invasive meningococcal disease in the UK. Where a safe and effective vaccine exists, it is increasingly difficult to justify its absence for those demonstrably at risk.

‘Impacted families have spoken of their shock that a separate vaccine existed but was not routinely offered.

‘We feel that it is a tragedy that a vaccine exists but is not routinely offered to this group.’

MPs have urged the Government and UKHSA to ensure the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation (JCVI) review of eligibility for meningitis vaccines is conducted at pace, to work with universities across the country on catch-up vaccination programmes, and to improve awareness.

‘What has happened to the families in east Kent and to all those before them is nothing short of a tragedy,’ the letter concludes. ‘No family should have to discover too late that protection was available, but not available to many on our NHS.’

Kent County Council’s director of public health, Dr Anjan Ghosh, said it cannot yet be confirmed that the deadly outbreak of meningitis in Kent has been contained.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We’re not in the position yet to say that definitively, that it’s been contained.

‘If you see the daily reporting that’s going on, there are more and more cases being reported, but these cases all relate more or less to that same period of time when the initial exposure happened.

‘We are looking at what’s called secondary transmission, so that’s a case that’s then transmitted to another couple of people. We need to rule that out before we can say it’s definitely contained.’

Dr Ghosh also said there was ‘no reason to be anxious’, adding: ‘This is a disease. It’s not Covid. It doesn’t spread the same way that Covid or measles spread.

‘It spreads through close, protracted contact, intimate contact. So, it’s basically people in households, sharing cups, kissing, intimate contact, those kind of things.

‘So, there’s no need to panic or get anxious. People just need to go about their ordinary lives the way they have been.

‘However, if people have signs of meningitis, then they need to act fast. Or if they or anyone they know has been a contact in the same way I said, a close contact of a case of meningitis or suspected case of meningitis, they need to get the prophylaxis (antibiotics) as soon as possible.’

Trish Mannes, UKHSA regional deputy director for the South East, said today: ‘Two doses of the MenB vaccine helps protect individuals against meningococcal B disease.

‘It is important to know that the MenB vaccine does not protect against all strains of meningococcal disease, nor against all infections that can cause meningitis. It also does not prevent the bacteria from being carried and spread in the community.

‘It is therefore still hugely important that people are aware of the signs and symptoms of invasive meningococcal disease, and that they seek immediate medical attention if they or anyone they know develops these signs and symptoms.

‘If you have been offered preventative antibiotics, it is strongly recommended that you take them promptly. If you are a student at the University of Kent who is eligible but has since returned home, contact your local GP, who will be able to provide advice and prescribe the appropriate treatment.’

Ms Mannes also said before today’s case update that she was ‘expecting a small number of additional cases’ to be reported.

Speaking to BBC Radio Kent, she said the outbreak appears to be ‘largely a single transmission event… but because of the incubation period of this disease we will continue to get a trickle of cases’.

Ms Mannes added that UKHSA was seeing a ‘real peak around 13 March of cases presenting’, and no data suggested any further transmission event.

And an Escape Studios spokesman said: ‘We have been made aware that an individual attending Escape Studios had been admitted to hospital after contracting meningitis.

‘We understand that the individual is now recovering well, and our Student Services Team is offering support. This case is linked to the wider situation currently being managed in Kent.

‘We have been working closely with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and local public health teams since being notified.

‘This is a public health matter that is not specific to Escape Studios, and the response is being led by the UKHSA. As part of their standard protocol, UKHSA is carrying out contact tracing – close contacts of cases are being contacted directly by UKHSA and provided with advice on what to do next.’

Meanwhile a Morrisons spokesperson said: ‘We can confirm that a colleague at our Sittingbourne distribution centre visited Club Chemistry and subsequently contracted meningitis.

‘He is currently receiving treatment and we are in close touch with his family. We are following all government guidance, the site is operating as normal and we are continuing to monitor the situation closely.’

Speaking after receiving the menB vaccine at the University of Kent today, Paris Summer, 22, a psychology student from Twickenham, claimed health officials had been too slow to raise the alarm.

She said: ‘They just don’t really seem very prepared. I feel like, surely, they knew before someone actually ended up passing away. I feel like we could have found out a lot sooner.’

Aarohi Gupta, 21, an economics student from High Wycombe, said: ‘It was very scary, very worrying. Obviously, we didn’t really know what to do.

‘And the uni hadn’t really told us much. So, I think that was extra concerning. We found out when the rest of the public did.’

A computer science student at the University of Kent who gave her name only as Tumi, 20, said she decided not to return home to guard against spreading the outbreak.

She said: ‘I think if everyone leaves you kind of, if you’re carrying it, you don’t know, then you take it to your hometown. I just don’t think it’s quite safe, so I’ve just decided to stay here.’

Before the latest figures were announced this morning, Professor Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UKHSA, told BBC Breakfast: ‘I would say in outbreaks like this, you would typically expect a small increase in numbers still to go so I suspect that number will go up slightly.’

He described the outbreak, linked to Club Chemistry nightclub in Canterbury, as ‘very unusual’, adding: ‘So typically, you would expect to see sporadic cases of meningitis, typically individual patients. Most days, actually, we would see one in the UK. This is obviously a much larger number.

‘What is particularly remarkable about this case, and unexpected about this case, is the large number of cases all originating from what seems to be a single event.

‘There are two possible reasons for that. One is that there might be something about the kind of behaviours that individual people are doing. The other possibility is the bacteria itself may have evolved to be better at transmitting.’

Club Chemistry owner Louise Jones-Roberts said two of the nightclub’s workers were still in hospital with meningitis, but it is hoped they will return home by the end of this weekend.

She told BBC Breakfast: ‘People are frightened. There’s a lot of fear and anxiety. We are not prepared to open until we know this is under control and people are safe.’

MenB vaccines are being administered at the University of Kent in Canterbury after hundreds of students joined a queue outside the campus sports centre.

Those who have received the jab will need to return for their second dose after a minimum of four weeks, while 6,500 antibiotics have also been given out as a precaution, the university said.

In total, around 5,000 university campus students are eligible for a jab and are being urged to come forward for the immediate protection offered by antibiotics and longer-term protection from the vaccine. 

It comes after one school pupil, 18-year-old Juliette Kenny, and one university student aged 21 died – and 18 more cases were being investigated by the UKHSA, with some young people placed in induced comas. 

Professor May said the bacteria which can cause meningitis can be transmitted by sharing utensils, cups and vapes, adding: ‘So this is a bacteria that is actually quite widespread.

‘So a large number of us carry this, about 10 per cent of people my age, slightly higher in younger people carry this bacteria at the back of their throat anyway, and obviously, the vast majority of us don’t have any problem with disease, but in some cases it can cause severe disease.

‘And it is transmitted by this relatively close contact. So it’s transmitted by things like saliva and kissing in particular, but also sharing of utensils, sharing of cups or vapes or those kind of things.’

Professor May added: ‘Although it’s in the throat, it is not, for example, like Covid or flu. It’s not a respiratory disease in the sense of spreading very easily through the air. It does not survive very long on surfaces.

‘So people do not need to be concerned about things like public transport, for instance, where you know potentially you might come into contact with somebody with that in your train carriage or your bus.

‘But unless you’re in quite close contact for an extended period of time with them, you are not at risk from them.’

Consultant virologist Dr Chris Smith also told BBC Breakfast that many people can test positive for bacteria that are linked to meningitis, but usually only a small number of people become infected.

He said: ‘What’s unusual about this case is we’ve gone from something which we know happens but doesn’t normally translate into severe clinical disease, suddenly, with one event, translating into a lot of people who’ve developed the invasive infection. 

‘That’s what the genetic sequence that will currently be going on, looking at what’s the code behind this bacterium, what’s in that that might endow it with these additional superpowers that’s turned it into this more invasive form of meningitis?’

The UKHSA issued an alert for the NHS across England yesterday on signs and symptoms of meningitis to look out for, though this does not signal the outbreak is going to spread nationwide.

The alert said the illness being seen in the Kent outbreak ‘has been severe with rapid deterioration’ and urges clinical staff to take infection control measures in the period before patients are put on antibiotics, such as face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE).

It urges doctors to have a ‘high index of suspicion where a young person aged 16 to 30 attends with consistent signs or symptoms’ of the bug.

Students from the university halls in Canterbury who have already left campus will be able to get a menB jab from their GP, according to the Department of Health.

Canterbury Christ Church University, also in Kent, confirmed a meningitis case among its students yesterday.

A case was also confirmed this week in a student at a school in Dorset – Budmouth Academy in Weymouth – but officials stressed this is not linked to the Kent outbreak.

GPs across the country have also been told to prescribe antibiotics to anyone who visited Club Chemistry from March 5 to 7, plus students from the University of Kent.

This is to ensure anyone who has left campus can make sure they get the right treatment.

The UKHSA stressed there are plenty of NHS stocks of menB vaccines after pharmacies reported they were struggling to obtain stock for people who want to pay privately.

Meanwhile a campaign group said the meningitis outbreak should act as a wake-up call as the number of infectious disease incidents increase following cuts to aid budgets and vaccination programmes.

The organisation – ‘Healthy World, Secure Britain’ – claims rates of tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, Mpox, dengue fever, measles and meningitis have increased post-Covid, while the UK and the world have cut funding for global health initiatives.

Dr Arshad Rizvi, a London GP with a special interest in global health and infectious disease, said the current meningitis outbreak has ‘brought into sharp focus the dangers of infectious diseases and how we must be ever vigilant’.

He added: ‘Sadly, they are becoming increasingly common as governments across the world cut health aid budgets and vaccination programmes.

‘Governments are under enormous budgetary pressure to reduce aid that helps tackle these diseases at source, but we would argue that is a false economy.

‘Populations are so connected now because of worldwide travel that inevitably health problems abroad are imported back into this country.’

Yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer expressed his ‘deepest condolences’ for the friends and family of the two people who had died following the outbreak in Kent during Prime Minister’s Questions. w