UK meningitis outbreak cases rise to 27: official

The number of meningitis cases being probed by UK authorities has risen to 27, health officials said Thursday, following an unprecedented deadly outbreak centred on a university. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said in a statement: “15 laboratory cases are confirmed and 12 notifications remain under investigation, bringing the total to 27”. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has led urgent calls for young people who visited the nightclub on the weekend of the outbreak to come forward, adding health experts were working to identify close contacts of those who were ill.

Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, he asked “anyone who attended Club Chemistry on March, 5, 6th or 7th to come forward, please, to receive antibiotics”. The university has rolled out a targeted vaccination programme for meningitis B — a deadly bacterial strain — for some 5,000 students. Hundreds of students queued at the campus on Wednesday to get the jab.

The number of cases being probed by UK authorities has risen since Tuesday from 15 to 27, authorities confirmed on Thursday, amid fears the disease could spread as students head home for the Easter vacation. French authorities also reported one case involving a person in France, who had attended the University of Kent. Cases have also been confirmed in students at four schools in Kent, as well as one student at a higher education institution in London, the UK health authorities said. The two deaths in the outbreak have been identified as an 18-year-old schoolgirl and 21-year-old University of Kent student.