British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday urged people who attended a nightclub in Canterbury, southeast England, to come forward to receive antibiotics, in response to an “unprecedented” meningitis outbreak that has left two people dead.
The total number of cases reported to health authorities — all young adults — increased from 15 to 20, according to a report established Wednesday.
In front of the deputies, Keir Starmer presented his condolences to the relatives of the two young people who died.
“Others are seriously ill,” he stressed, calling on “all the people” who went to the Club Chemistry nightclub on March 5, 6 or 7 “to come forward in order to receive antibiotics.”
According to Health Minister Wes Streeting, the majority of cases are linked to this nightclub, frequented by students from Canterbury.
Around 2,000 people visited the establishment over these three evenings.
“What worries us in the Canterbury outbreak is the speed and scale of the spread of the disease – it is unprecedented,” Wes Streeting also stressed on the BBC.
“The situation is evolving rapidly and other cases could be identified,” warned the health agency, UKHSA, in a press release, specifying that so far, all those affected are “young adults”.
The two people who died are an 18-year-old final year student, named Juliette, and a 21-year-old student at the University of Kent.
According to the new report released by the UKHSA, nine cases are confirmed by laboratory analyzes and eleven reports are still under investigation, bringing the total to 20.
Six of them, including the fatal cases, are meningococcal infections “belonging to group B”, rare but very serious.
Fear of the epidemic spreading is growing.
One of the people concerned went to a London hospital, but did not “have contact with the local population in London”, assured the UKHSA.
A person hospitalized in France
The French Ministry of Health has confirmed that one person is hospitalized in stable condition in France. This is a person who attended the University of Kent.
Rarer than viral meningitis, bacterial meningitis kills devastatingly when it is not treated and, even if it is treated, causes high mortality and a high risk of after-effects.
Antibiotics are the “most effective treatment to limit the spread” of the epidemic, stressed the UKHSA.
More than 2,500 doses have been administered in Kent, to students, contact cases and people who attended the Chemistry Club, the agency said.
“Given the severity of the epidemic,” a targeted vaccination program will be put in place, starting with students housed in halls of residence at the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus, the health agency said.
“Initially,” up to 5,000 students will be contacted and offered a vaccine.
The epidemic is causing concern among British people, many of whom want to be vaccinated. The Boots pharmacy chain has set up a queue system on its website to access vaccination in the face of “very high demand”.
But Olivier Picard, president of the National Association of Pharmacists, warned that there was currently no stock of meningitis B vaccines available for purchase by the general public.
“We are entirely dependent on manufacturers and wholesalers to supply our pharmacies, and our patients are worried. They want their children to be vaccinated,” he continued.
The Health Minister said there were at least 350 cases of meningitis in the UK each year.
But “this is by far the most rapidly spreading meningitis epidemic in my entire career,” said England’s deputy chief medical officer, Dr Thomas Waite.
Laboratory researchers are working to determine whether this spread is due to a possible mutant strain of meningococcus B, according to the British agency PA.
