Britain grapples with sudden meningitis outbreak after two students died
發佈日期: 2026-03-19 20:26
TVB News
In the UK, doctors have been warned to watch for an "unprecedented" outbreak of bacterial meningitis B that led to the death of two young people in the university town of Canterbury.
20 new cases of the infection, which can spread through close contact, have been confirmed.
Jethro Herberg, a consultant paediatrician at Imperial College London, said: "You have an infection leading to inflammation of the membranes that surround your brain. They're called the meninges and that's why it's called meningitis. So this can be caused by a whole plethora of different bugs. Some of them are viruses and some of them are bacteria. In this case we're dealing with bacterial meningitis and these tend to be more serious."
Professor Simon Clarke, a cellular microbiologist at the University of Reading, said: "If people are, feeling sick, getting a sudden temperature, often with chills, sore neck, and of course, that characteristic rash that famously doesn't vanish when you apply a glass to it, which is what would happen with a normal allergic rash. These are all the tell tale signs of meningococcal disease."
Officials said the majority of the cases were linked to the Club Chemistry nightclub in Canterbury between March 5th and 7th.
Youngsters are particularly at risk because they will not have received routine vaccinations for the virulent strain of meningitis B which only rolled out in 2015.
To address the outbreak, over 2,500 antibiotic doses have so far been administered across sites.
However, health authorities maintained that the risk of the disease to the general public in Britain and across the European Union remains "very low."
