A major vaccination operation began Wednesday on the campus of the University of Kent in England, in an attempt to stop an outbreak of meningitis, "unprecedented" according to authorities, which has left two dead.
The total number of cases reported to health authorities, all young adults, has risen from 15 to 20, according to a report compiled on Wednesday.
According to Health Minister Wes Streeting, the majority of cases are linked to a nightclub in Canterbury (southeast England), Club Chemistry, frequented by students from the University of Kent.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday urged anyone who visited the nightclub on March 5, 6, and 7 to come forward to receive antibiotics. Approximately 2,000 people visited the establishment over those three nights.
Masked students came to collect the medication at the almost deserted university, an AFP journalist observed. Among them was 19-year-old Jack Jordan: "It's quite worrying. Everything happened so fast," he told AFP, while queuing outside a faculty building that had been converted into a clinic.
Glenn Reeve, 27, who was at Club Chemistry the weekend the outbreak started, says he "panicked a little" when he found out about it.
Students residing on campus have also been able to get vaccinated since Wednesday afternoon, and many were waiting outside the school's sports center where the vaccination is taking place.
Irene, 21, says she came "immediately" after receiving the notification. Even though she's vaccinated, she says she'll "remain in isolation, but much more relaxed."
"Up to 5,000 students" will be offered vaccination, the health agency, UKHSA, said in a statement.
– A person hospitalized in France –
Speaking to MPs, Keir Starmer offered his condolences to the families of the two young people who died, an 18-year-old high school senior named Juliette, and a 21-year-old student at the University of Kent.
"Others are seriously ill," he stressed.
The Health Minister expressed his concern. "What worries us (...) is the speed and scale of the spread of the disease – it is unprecedented," he told the BBC.
"The situation is evolving rapidly and more cases could be identified," warned UKHSA.
According to the latest UKHSA figures, nine cases have been confirmed by laboratory tests and eleven reports are still under investigation, bringing the total to 20.
For six of them, including the fatal cases, it involves infections with meningococcus "belonging to group B", rare but very serious.
Canterbury Christ Church University, another institution in the city, announced on Wednesday that a case had been confirmed in one of its students. When contacted, UKHSA declined to specify whether this student was among the 20 already identified.
Fears of the epidemic spreading are growing, and the agency on Wednesday alerted health professionals in England to have a "high degree of suspicion when a young person aged 16 to 30 consults for symptoms" that could correspond to meningitis.
One of the infected people went to a London hospital, but she did not "have any contact with the local population in London," she also assured.
The French Ministry of Health has confirmed that a person, who attended the University of Kent, is hospitalized in stable condition in France.
Although rarer than viral meningitis, bacterial meningitis kills rapidly when left untreated and, even if treated, results in high mortality and a high risk of long-term consequences.
Antibiotics are the "most effective treatment to limit the spread" of the epidemic, stressed the UKHSA.
The epidemic is causing concern among Britons. The Boots pharmacy chain has implemented a queuing system on its website in response to the "very high demand" for the vaccine.
The Health Minister indicated that there are at least 350 cases of meningitis in the UK each year.
But "in my entire career, this is by far the fastest-spreading meningitis outbreak," said England's deputy chief medical officer, Dr. Thomas Waite.
Laboratory researchers are working to determine if this spread is due to a possible mutant strain of meningococcus B, according to the British news agency PA.
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