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Meningitis is thankfully rare, but the outbreak in Kent is a cruel reminder that the disease is still with us, and that young people are most at risk.
Health authorities are yet to identify the exact strain that has killed two students – one a sixth-former in Canterbury, the other studying at the University of Kent – and left 11 others seriously ill.
But we know we are dealing with the bacterial form of meningitis. Thankfully, not as common as it once was, but no less devastating.
Follow latest: Hundreds of masked Kent university students queue for antibiotics
“There’s been less and less disease thanks to the effectiveness of vaccines, which are now available on the NHS”, said Dr Tom Nutt, chief executive of charity Meningitis Now.
“So to get a big cluster like this in Canterbury, I think, is pretty shocking and pretty unusual.”
Babies, children and young adults are most at risk, and the bacterial infection – sluggish compared to respiratory viruses like colds and flu – has more chance to spread through the social scene and shared accommodation of colleges and universities.
The UK Health Security Agency says it has shared information with 30,000 people in the outbreak area.
Contacts of cases are being traced and offered antibiotics to prevent new infections, reducing the risk that the current outbreak will grow. The risk to anyone outside of the outbreak itself is lower still.
But for those made ill, along with the 300 to 400 people each year in England unlucky enough to get bacterial meningitis, also…
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