Kent students to be offered meningitis vaccines after outbreak
Students in university halls in Kent will be offered the meningitis B vaccine within days as officials move to contain an outbreak that has killed two young people, according to the UK Health Security Agency and Health Secretary...
Kent students to get menB vaccine amid outbreak
Students in university halls in Kent will be offered the meningitis B vaccine within days as officials move to contain an outbreak that has killed two young people, according to the UK Health Security Agency and Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
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By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring
British Health Secretary Wes Streeting said most students would not already be vaccinated against menB and that jabs will begin in the next few days.
He told MPs:
This is an unprecedented outbreak. It is also a rapidly developing situation.
Some 15 cases of meningitis have so far been reported to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in Kent, up from 13 reported previously. The UKHSA, which is investigating the outbreak that left two young people dead, said all the cases had required hospital admission, with four cases confirmed to have meningitis B. The two deaths are included in the 15 total cases.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people are being urged to get antibiotics, and four sites in Kent are up and running to give them out, officials said.
Streeting said the menB vaccine has been available on the NHS since 2015 as part of routine childhood immunisations.
but clearly most students would not be vaccinated
Streeting told the Commons he has asked the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to re-examine eligibility for meningitis vaccines for a wider group of people after it ruled a menB catch-up campaign for older children was not cost effective.
On the question of wider eligibility, we obviously follow the expert independent advice of the JCVI.
In light of this latest outbreak, I will be asking them to re-examine eligibility for meningitis vaccines.
I will do so without prejudicing their decision because we have to follow the clinical advice on this.
The health secretary said he was confident the UKHSA acted as quickly and comprehensively as possible in its response to the outbreak, after criticism that it was too slow to inform the public.
Details on further measures were not immediately available.