March 18, 2026

expert reaction to latest UKHSA figures on the meningitis outbreak in Kent

Dr Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health, University of Southampton, said:

“The current response, for example the targeted vaccination programme is sensible, providing public health benefit and hopefully reassurance for those who are potentially exposed. Antibiotics are highly effective as a preventative measure.

“We may well see more cases, specific to the Kent outbreak, but also unrelated and elsewhere in the UK. In recent years, vaccination has greatly reduced meningitis cases and deaths. However, there are still around 300 cases of meningitis B per year in the UK. That is an average of roughly one per day. Therefore, we would expect to see some reporting of suspected and confirmed cases, outside of this particularly severe Kent outbreak. Local hospitals and public health teams will manage them. Meningitis B is a severe disease, that is still with us.“

Prof Paul Hunter, Professor in Medicine, The Norwich School of Medicine, University of East Anglia, said:

“There are over 100 different strains of MenB and they vary in their invasiveness/virulence. Most invasive disease tends to be caused by a rather more limited number of types. So, it will be more virulent than many subtypes. But whether this subtype type is more virulent than any other type is not clear.

“What UKSA is doing is fully in line with existing guidelines on managing clusters of invasive meningococcal disease. It is difficult to know what more could be done at present. Identify contacts, arranging antibiotic prophylaxis for those contacts and vaccine. Making people and medical staff aware of the problem to encourage rapid action. The targeted vaccination programme is fully in line with current guidelines.

“In terms of the likelihood of the outbreak spreading further, there are two issues here. One is could people currently incubating the infection have moved elsewhere and become sick. Certainly, it is possible and I believe we have already seen one such case. The other issue is could there be secondary cases from affected people and that is also possible. So, there will be new contacts of cases who got sick from the nightclub but themselves didn’t visit the club. So, cases will have their own contacts managed. The issue is whether this strain of MenB could spread more widely in society. Certainly possible. But difficult to say with certainty. It is not clear yet how common the strain causing this outbreak has been in recent years. Without that knowledge difficult to say. But I think the likelihood of wider spread is still low.”

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink: https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-meningitis-outbreak-in-kent/

Declared interests

Dr Michael Head: “No COI to declare”

Prof Paul Hunter: “No conflicts of interest.”