Meningitis: Family describe ‘immeasurable loss’ as cases rise to 29
The family of a teenager who died from meningitis in the Kent outbreak have described their “immeasurable loss” as the number of cases jumped to 29.
Juliette Kenny, 18, died on March 14, one day after first showing symptoms – which were vomiting and discolouration in her cheeks, her father Michael said. In a statement to the Press Association, Mr Kenny said his daughter had been “fit, healthy and strong” before her death – and had completed the practical assessment for her PE A-level on March 12. The family are now campaigning for teenagers and young people to be routinely given access to the meningitis B vaccination. It comes as the UKHSA said the number of cases linked to the outbreak has reached 29, up from 27 previously. Some 18 cases have been confirmed, alongside a further 11 “probable cases”, all with links to Kent, the UKHSA said. Thirteen of the 18 confirmed cases are menB. All cases have required hospital admission. Juliette, who was described by her father as having a “beautifully positive energy”, is one of two students who have died following the outbreak of meningitis. Mr Kenny said “no family should experience this pain and tragedy” and that “this can be avoided”, adding he wants his daughter’s legacy to be “lasting change”. Hundreds of students on the University of Kent campus queued for a vaccine on Friday. More than 100 students were told to leave the queue by staff on Thursday afternoon after the university said “nursing staff are unable to see any more people within the clinic’s remaining opening hours today”. The clinic closed at 5pm. By 8.45am on Friday, around 700 staff and students were in the queue, according to estimates by Press Association reporters at the scene. The campus was busy as students and staff lined up outside the sports centre to receive the jab. One student near the front said she had joined the queue at 7.55am. The clinic is operating from 9am to 5pm, with students told to join the queue by 2pm. The chief scientific officer of the UKHSA, Professor Robin May, said a “staffing issue” led to people being turned away on Thursday. He told Times Radio: “Yesterday, it was a staffing issue. To emphasise – we are not short of vaccine. Yesterday, demand exceeded the ability of staff to fulfil it within the time allocated. “I would like to really stress that the frontline response for people who are exposed is prophylactic antibiotics, which have now all been given, so people who have been exposed have had antibiotics to protect them from disease. “The vaccination that we’re offering now is for follow-up protection, but those students who are on antibiotics are already protected. “Nonetheless, we are encouraging people who are eligible to get their vaccine clearly, but the fact that they might have had to wait a day or two is not an immediate health risk.” He said experts are still trying to work out if the meningitis bug has become more transmissible in the recent cases. The UKHSA has said the Bexsero vaccine for menB used on the NHS should offer protection against the strain identified, and it published details of an “initial genetic analysis” of the strain. Similar strains have been circulating in the UK for around five years but more detailed analysis is required, the UKHSA said, as it invited researchers to look at its code in detail. Prof May said “typically, we see on average in the UK about one case of meningitis a day”, adding: “This is obviously a much bigger number than that and so there’s something unusual about this outbreak. “We are focusing our investigations on two possibilities, which both may be true, or neither. “One is that there is something about the particular setting that has enabled this bacteria to spread very well in that particular club setting. We don’t know that, there’s no evidence for that at the moment, but that’s one course of investigation. “The other possibility is that the bacteria itself has changed in a way that makes it more transmissible, perhaps more likely to cause disease. “Many of us carry menB as a bacteria without any problems in the back of our throats all the time. It could be that this is a bacteria that’s just more likely to progress to disease.” He said the “genome for this bacteria is about 100 times bigger than Covid so it’s a lot more complicated”, adding analysis is ongoing “on whether anything has changed in the bacteria that might make it more likely to spread or cause disease”. Asked if such an outbreak could happen again, he said: “Well obviously that’s something we’re very conscious of. “We’ll be mindful both of the possibility of this particular strain, for example, re-emerging in the future, but also general principles that we’ll learn about the bacteria. “As with all pathogens, there’s always much more we can learn, and by learning more about how they work, we hope to develop better ways to prevent them causing disease in the future.” As of 5pm on Thursday, some 2,360 vaccinations have been given and 9,840 doses of antibiotics to those affected by the outbreak.
Published: by Radio NewsHub