Concerns grow over possible meningitis clusters across the UK

Sporadic household clusters of meningitis could appear over the next four weeks in other parts of the UK linked to the travel of people away from Kent, a health leader has said.

Kent County Council’s director of public health Dr Anjan Ghosh told a briefing three scenarios were being looked at over the next four weeks, with the most likely being that students who have travelled away from Kent will “incubate” the bug and there could be “household” cases elsewhere.

However, he said these would be “containable” and urged people to carry on with their lives.

Students have already left for home in Kent as exam week finishes and Easter break starts.

It comes as the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the number of cases linked to the outbreak has reached 29.

The first scenario is that the outbreak remains contained in Kent.

“Second scenario is that there are people who’ve left, they’ve gone off campus, and many of them don’t stay in Kent, they go and stay elsewhere,” Dr Ghosh said.

“They were incubating when they left, and then they become cases, and there are small household, sporadic clusters outside of Kent.”

The third scenario - worst case scenario but not very likely - would result in another cluster outside of Kent.

However, he said this is “highly unlikely”, with the second scenario “most likely to be the case”.

Dr Ghosh states that meningitis is much more difficult to catch then Covid, saying it “requires protracted close contact in order for it to be spread, and that usually is in a household context or in a dormitory context”.

He urged anyone identified as a close contact by the UKHSA to come forward for preventative antibiotics.

He added: “There’s no reason for people to not be going about leading their normal lives.”