No new cases of meningitis linked to the outbreak in Kent have been detected, elevating hopes that it has been nicely contained and has not led to folks elsewhere catching the illness.
The variety of folks affected stays at 29, of which 20 are are confirmed and nine probable cases in what health officers say is an “explosive” outbreak – the most important to happen within the UK in a technology.
Two of the 20 folks confirmed with the illness have died: Juliette Kenny, 18, a secondary school student, and an unnamed University of Kent pupil. The different 18 are thought nonetheless to be in hospital.
Nineteen of the 20 confirmed cases have been of meningitis B. The outbreak entails individuals who attended the Chemistry nightclub in Canterbury on 5, 6 and seven March, together with college students from the town’s two universities.
The whole variety of cases has fallen from 34 on Friday to the 29 the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reported on Sunday and Monday. Five cases have been reclassified because of laboratory testing.
That quantity might fall additional as a result of extra cases included within the 29 additionally look probably to be ”downgraded” and faraway from the headline whole.
“Whilst we expect some further probable cases to be downgraded in the coming days, this outbreak is not yet over,” a UKHSA spokesperson mentioned.
The proven fact that the variety of cases has not continued to rise because the outbreak first got here to the UKHSA’s consideration over the weekend of 13/14/15 March is grounds for optimism, health officers and specialists consider.
Staff from Kent county council, NHS England and the UKHSA shortly started offering antibiotics and vaccines and tracing contacts of these identified to have been contaminated.
“The lack of new cases is a good sign and may signal that the Kent outbreak has been contained,” mentioned Simon Williams, a public health skilled at Swansea University.
“However, we can’t rule out [that] there are no further cases linked to this outbreak because the latency period, the time between exposure and symptom or disease alert, for MenB can sometimes be longer than a few days.”
The lack of new cases was largely the results of immediate antibiotics and vaccine provision and speak to tracing, he mentioned.
But “this is also partly due to the nature of MenB, because it is not as contagious and easily spread as, say, flu or Covid. It does not infect as many people as this and so the precautions taken in Kent, including voluntary reduction of socialising, will also have played a part.”
As of lunchtime on Monday, 13,088 doses of antibiotics had been given out and 10,081 folks had been vaccinated towards meningitis B.
One health official mentioned: “It looks promising and reassuring that cases have not increased. that suggests that there’s not a secondary chain of transmission beyond the already-known chain of transmission in Canterbury.”
