Staff and students queue to receive antibiotics at the University of Kent in Canterbury on Monday.Carl Court/Getty Images
British health authorities were working Tuesday to stop an outbreak of meningococcal disease that has killed two people and infected at least 15 in southeast England.
The outbreak has prompted the U.K. Health Security Agency to begin contact tracing, distribute antibiotics and begin a targeted vaccination program in the area – starting at the University of Kent, outside the city of Canterbury, where all in-person exams were cancelled this week.
“This is an unprecedented outbreak,” Wes Streeting, Britain’s health secretary, said Tuesday. “It is also a rapidly developing situation.”
The first case was reported to the health authorities last Friday, and most have been traced to a nightclub in Canterbury that is popular with students. Health officials have asked anyone who visited the club on March 5, 6 or 7 to come forward to receive antibiotics.
Meningococcal disease, which is caused by bacteria, is spread through prolonged close contact. It can present as meningitis, an inflammation of the brain and spinal membranes, or septicemia, an infection in the bloodstream.
Both are potentially deadly. About one in 20 people who develop meningococcal disease dies, according to the Oxford Vaccine Group. About one-fifth of survivors suffer long-term effects, such as hearing loss and seizures.
A student at the University of Kent died after contracting meningitis, the school announced Sunday. An 18-year-old student at a high school in Faversham, about 10 miles from Canterbury, died Saturday from the infection, according to the BBC.
The authorities in France have also reported a case in that country, in a person who attended the University of Kent, Streeting said, and at least two cases have been identified in local high schools. More than 700 doses of antibiotics have been administered since Friday, he said.