The number of meningitis cases being investigated has surged to 20 after the Kent ‘super-spreader’ outbreak.
Health officials are battling to contain the outbreak of meningitis in Kent, with thousands given preventative antibiotics to prevent the deadly infection.
Two people have died and 15 people are in hospital following the outbreak at the University of Kent in Canterbury.
Now the outbreak has been declared a national incident and the number of cases is expected to rise as symptoms take between two and 14 days to develop.
The outbreak is being viewed by experts as unprecedented owing to the high number of cases appearing in such a short space of time.
Sign up for all of the latest stories
Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
UKHSA chief executive Susan Hopkins said: ‘This looks like a super-spreader event, with ongoing spread within the halls of residence in the universities.
‘There will have been some parties particularly around this, so there will have been lots of social mixing.
‘I can’t yet say where the initial infection came from, how it’s got into this cohort, and why it’s created such an explosive amount of infections.
‘I can say that in my 35 years working in medicine, in healthcare and hospitals, this is the most cases I’ve seen in a single weekend with this type of infection.
‘It’s the explosive nature that is unprecedented here – the number of cases in such a short space of time.
‘NHS were initially managing it as a major incident in the region but they have now increased that overlay to having a national-level oversight as well.’
Six of the confirmed cases have been found to be group B meningococcal disease, the UKHSA said.
Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.
