Kent meningitis outbreak may have peaked as UKHSA reports slowdown in cases

Experts continue to analyse strain of MenB to understand whether it has become more likely to spread or cause disease The Kent meningitis outbreak may have reached its peak after only two new cases were reported by officials on Friday. The UK Health and Security Agency said that as of 12.30pm on Thursday, there were 18 confirmed and 11 probable cases of meningitis linked to the Kent outbreak, taking the total number of people with the disease to 29. Of the confirmed cases, 13 were meningitis B. While the growth in cases may have slowed, the situation remains serious, with all cases requiring hospital admission. As of 5pm on Thursday, 2,360 vaccinations had been given and 9,840 doses of antibiotics handed out to those affected by the outbreak, UKHSA said. Prof Robin May, the chief scientific officer of the UKHSA, said experts were still trying to work out if the meningitis B bug in this outbreak had become more transmissible, given that usually there was typically only one new case of meningitis a day. He told Times Radio: “We’ve been working around the clock since the discovery of this outbreak to try and understand more about it, including doing DNA sequencing, genome sequencing f