The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said in a statement: “15 laboratory cases are confirmed and 12 notifications remain under investigation, bringing the total to 27”.
Two people have died since the epidemic came to light at the weekend, centred on the University of Kent in southeastern Canterbury and a local nightclub popular with students. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has led urgent calls for young people who visited the nightclub on the weekend of the outbreak to come forward, adding health experts were working to identify close contacts of those who were ill.
Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, he asked “anyone who attended Club Chemistry on March, 5, 6th or 7th to come forward, please, to receive antibiotics”. The university has rolled out a targeted vaccination programme for meningitis B — a deadly bacterial strain — for some 5,000 students.