Meningitis cases linked to Kent outbreak rise to 29 as students queue for vaccine
BBC • • general
Key Points:
- Long queues have formed outside the Vicarage Lane Clinic in Ashford as thousands more people in the Canterbury area become eligible for meningitis B (MenB) vaccinations following government expansion of the criteria.
- Scientists at UKHSA confirm that the Bexsero vaccine currently offered should protect against the MenB strain causing the outbreak in Kent, though further research is ongoing to understand its rapid spread.
- The University of Kent vaccination clinic has seen high demand, with hundreds waiting for jabs, including students, staff, and local school sixth-formers; many support calls to extend vaccination to all teenagers and young adults.
- The family of Juliette Kenny, a healthy sixth-form student who died rapidly from MenB, has urged for routine NHS vaccination
