UK Expands MenB Vaccination Offer to Kent Students Amid Outbreak Response

Students queued around the block at the University of Kent's Canterbury sports hall as health officials expanded the MenB vaccination programme a second time in a week, extending jabs to Year 11 pupils at schools already running clinics and pushing the total of doses administered past 4,500.

Preventative antibiotic treatment and vaccination were extended to sixth-form students in Years 12 and 13 at schools and colleges in Kent with confirmed or probable cases, with the UKHSA simultaneously broadening the offer further. Year 11 pupils at schools where the vaccination offer had already been made were added to the eligible cohort, with the programme potentially expanding further as UKHSA continued to assess ongoing risk.

Vaccination began with students living in Canterbury campus halls of residence at the University of Kent, and as of Friday 20 March was extended to everyone who had been offered preventative antibiotic treatment as part of the outbreak. The vaccination programme, which began on Wednesday afternoon with only those living on the University of Kent's Canterbury campus eligible, had since been expanded to anyone who attended Club Chemistry between March 5 and March 15, Year 12 and 13 pupils at four affected schools, and students and staff at the University of Kent.

The number of confirmed deaths remained at two: a 21-year-old student at the University of Kent and a sixth-form pupil from nearby Faversham. Juliette Kenny, a Year 13 pupil at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Faversham, died on Saturday, March 14, less than 24 hours after first falling ill at her home in Kent. Her father Michael Kenny described his daughter as "a force in this world" who "spread fun, love and happiness." The Kenny family said they were not aware that the vaccination is not routinely available on the NHS for teenagers and young adults, and that to have it they would need to pay privately.

As of 12:30pm on 18 March, 15 laboratory cases were confirmed and 12 notifications remained under investigation, bringing the total to 27. By 22 March, the UKHSA had decreased the number of cases associated with the Kent outbreak to 29, with 20 being laboratory confirmed. Cases were confirmed in students at four schools in Kent, as well as one student at a higher education institution in London confirmed to be directly linked to the outbreak.

The rapid emergence of cases was described as genuinely unusual: fifteen cases emerging within 48 hours is not something seen in a typical meningococcal outbreak, where the vast majority involve two to four cases over a longer timeframe.

Given current demand on the private MenB vaccine market, 20,000 doses were also released from NHS supply to support continuity of private provision, enabling up to 2,000 pharmacies to receive vaccines within 48 hours. Health workers maintained there was no national shortage, though pharmacies reported struggling to obtain stock for those wishing to pay privately.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced a further expansion, stating that anyone who was at Club Chemistry from 5 March onwards should come forward for both antibiotics and vaccine. The Department of Health and Social Care makes vaccination programme decisions following advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which does not currently recommend a routine MenB booster for adolescents and young adults; the JCVI routinely reviews new evidence as it emerges, and UKHSA advised that the committee consider this outbreak to confirm its latest guidance.

UKHSA Chief Executive Professor Susan Hopkins said: "By extending the vaccination programme to everyone who has been offered preventative antibiotics, we are taking an important additional step to protect those most likely to have been exposed. The message is simple: if you have had the antibiotic, you are also eligible for the vaccination."

A Level student Isla Chambers, a pupil at Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School, captured the mood: "It's like Covid again where everyone is socially distancing and not making plans to go out."

Latest figures showed no new meningitis cases linked to the outbreak in Kent for the second day in a row, a sign that the intensive antibiotic and vaccination drive was beginning to contain the cluster. Juliette Kenny's family said they were unaware that the MenB vaccine is not routinely offered on the NHS to teenagers and young adults, and are now urging the government to extend access to older age groups. The Meningitis Research Foundation said teenagers and young adults remain one of the key at-risk groups but face a clear protection gap, noting that the MenB jab was introduced on the NHS for babies in 2015, meaning the majority of young people born before then are not protected.