The peak of a fatal meningitis outbreak, thought to have originated in a Canterbury nightclub, has passed according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).<\/p>\n
A total of 29 confirmed or suspected cases of meningitis have been linked to the Kent outbreak, which has killed two people.<\/p>\n
Trish Mannes, the agency’s regional deputy director for the South East, told BBC Radio Kent that \u00ab\u00a0this peak has passed, absolutely\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We could still see cases continuing to come in, we need to keep an eye on those. We need to really understand exactly what happens a bit more before we can be too optimistic about this,\u00a0\u00bb Mannes said.<\/p>\n
The UKHSA count of confirmed cases dropped on Sunday from 23 to 20 and suspected cases were reduced from 11 to nine after further testing.<\/p>\n
Authorities said on Monday that there had been no change to the figures.<\/p>\n
Two people have died following the outbreak, an 18-year-old sixth former, Juliette Kenny, from Faversham and an unnamed University of Kent student aged 21.<\/p>\n
Kate Bradley, a lecturer at the University of Kent, said it had been a really difficult week for students.<\/p>\n
It was already a \u00ab\u00a0nerve-wracking\u00a0\u00bb time because students had assessments, but the outbreak had \u00ab\u00a0tipped everything upside down\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
She said: \u00ab\u00a0Some of them are grieving. They’ve got friends who are in hospital. They are worried about their own health.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Abbie Lebbie, who was queuing for a vaccine at the University of Kent on Monday morning, said the situation was less stressful than before.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I feel quite relaxed,\u00a0\u00bb she told the BBC.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Cases have dropped and people are doing as much as they can to put procedures in place.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Josh Collumbell says the more people who get the jab the more it helps everyone else.<\/p>\n
He said the deaths of the young people from meningitis had been a \u00ab\u00a0huge shock\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
Four clinics offering offering antibiotics and vaccines to eligible people have reopened on Monday as part of the UKHSA’s response to the outbreak.<\/p>\n
More than 10,000 people have received jabs and about 13,000 people have been given preventative antibiotics, according to the NHS.<\/p>\n
The clinics are located at the University of Kent’s sports centre, Kent and Canterbury Hospital in Canterbury, Vicarage Lane Clinic in Ashford, and Faversham Health Centre.<\/p>\n
Mannes said keeping vaccination centres open was \u00ab\u00a0under daily review\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
The UKHSA was \u00ab\u00a0hopeful\u00a0\u00bb the the number of people to come forward would be \u00ab\u00a0sufficient to contain the spread from this particular incident\u00a0\u00bb, Mannes told the BBC.<\/p>\n
She said authorities were \u00ab\u00a0just seeing cases from that initial event\u00a0\u00bb at the Club Chemistry nightclub, which remains closed, so far.<\/p>\n
Eligible University of Kent students who returned home after the spring term ended on Friday can access the vaccination and antibiotics from their local GP, according to the UKHSA.<\/p>\n
On Sunday Health Secretary Wes Streeting praised the \u00ab\u00a0Herculean efforts\u00a0\u00bb of people working to \u00ab\u00a0care for those affected and keep people safe\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
The strain linked to the outbreak is Meningitis B (MenB). Routine vaccinations against the strain only began to be rolled out in 2015, meaning the current generation of students and others in their late teens are not protected.<\/p>\n
Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The peak of a fatal meningitis outbreak, thought to have originated in a Canterbury nightclub, has passed according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). A total of 29 confirmed or suspected cases of meningitis have been linked to the Kent outbreak, which has killed two people. Trish Mannes, the agency’s regional deputy director for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}