Much of the University of Kent campus outside Canterbury was eerily deserted on Thursday, except for a line of masked students waiting to be vaccinated, after the site in southeastern England became the center of a meningitis outbreak.
Gesturing at the hundreds of people standing about an arm’s length from each other, Gina Plenderleith, who teaches Pilates at the campus gym, said, “That’s a horrible sight — bringing back Covid memories.”
In the past week, two people have died and at least 29 others are believed to have been infected in an outbreak that is thought to have begun at a nightclub in Canterbury.
The British public health authorities have worked with the university to distribute preventive antibiotics, which the government says are effective in 90 percent of cases, to all students and to anyone who attended the nightclub, Club Chemistry, between March 5 and March 7. And thousands of students and university employees at the campus have also been offered a vaccine targeted at the strain identified in the outbreak — “group B” meningococcal disease.
For those who lived through the coronavirus pandemic, the public health measures on campus were both familiar and frightening. The university announced that exams scheduled for this week would take place remotely through an online portal, and many students went home. Akila Nedimo, a first-year psychology student, remained on campus, fearful that if she went home to London, she might pass the disease on to her newborn cousin.
“It was scary at first, but I’m glad that they took measures to make sure we’re OK,” she said.
Louie Skingley, who lined up for a vaccine, said that he was at the nightclub on March 5, noting that it was packed with students, as usual. On Tuesday, he said, he began to feel some of the symptoms that health workers had warned about: a stiff neck and cold hands. His body ached and he felt exhausted. Alarmed, he called an ambulance, which picked him up from his campus accommodation. He said that doctors had diagnosed a viral infection, not meningitis, but that the experience had been terrifying nonetheless.
“It wasn’t great, but I’m all good now,” he said.
Meningitis most commonly affects children and young adults, according to the National Health Service. It causes inflammation of the brain and spinal membranes, and can also lead to septicemia, an infection of the blood.
Unlike the coronavirus, which can spread very quickly through respiratory droplets, meningitis-causing bacteria are only passed on through sustained contact, like kissing or household contact. University students living in close quarters are often affected as a result, experts say.
Wes Streeting, the British health secretary, visited the campus vaccine center on Thursday. “The risk here in Canterbury remains low,” he said, “and across the country, extremely low.”
Ali Ainslie, a retired nurse who works at the gym on campus, was patiently directing students toward the vaccination center. “I feel sorry for them,” said Ms. Ainslie, who left her job in public health after the pandemic. “This generation, they’ve had so much trauma so young in their lives from Covid.”
Until this week, Britain would have been celebrating the progress it has made against meningitis, said Tom Nutt, chief executive of Meningitis Now, a charity that has lobbied for more vaccinations and supports families affected by the disease. He cited data from the charity showing that Britain had seen 75 percent fewer cases of bacterial meningitis since the 1980s, the last time the country experienced a serious outbreak. While the vaccine targeting the B strain has been offered to babies in Britain since 2015, Mr. Nutt said that there was “a gap in the N.H.S. vaccination schedule” because it was not offered to current teenagers who were born before 2015.
On Friday morning, Dr. Anjan Ghosh, director of public health for Kent County Council, which covers Canterbury, told the BBC that it was too early to know whether the peak of the outbreak had passed, and said further cases could be identified next week.
Jacqui Gallacher said that she learned on Monday that a student who lived in the same university residence as her 19-year-old son, Henry, had been hospitalized. She rushed to the campus from her home in Hampshire, in southern England.
“I panicked a bit and thought, I’m going to come and pick him up,” she said. Back at home, for the next few days, she kept a close eye on her son and nearly drove him to the hospital when he showed symptoms that turned out to be a cold. On Thursday, they drove 85 miles back to campus so that he could be vaccinated.
“What was it like in there?” she asked Henry as he exited the sports hall.
“It wasn’t too bad,” he replied.
Ms. Gallacher smiled and escorted him back to the car, ready for the drive home.
Lynsey Chutel is a Times reporter based in London who covers breaking news in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
The post A Meningitis Outbreak Evokes Covid Memories at a British Campus appeared first on New York Times.
