March 16, 2026
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Deadly outbreak of meningitis on UK campus kills 2, sickens many more
Tens of thousands of people in the UK could be affected by the outbreak of this disease, which is largely preventable with vaccines
Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images
At least two students in Britain have died in an outbreak of a dangerous bacterial infection that is alarming public health officials there.
Meningococcal meningitis is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis and spread in respiratory droplets. (Meningitis can also be caused by other bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi and can occur as a complication of other diseases, such as measles.) The core symptoms can include fever, vomiting, confusion, muscle and joint pain and stiffness, pale or mottled skin and a rash that does not go away with pressure. Bacterial meningitis such as meningococcal meningitis requires immediate treatment with antibiotics, but it is also largely preventable with vaccines – but protection wanes over time, and in the UK a key vaccine for meningitis is only routinely given to babies.
Meningococcal meningitis spreads most easily in places where people who have not been vaccinated against the disease gather in close contact, for example in schools or student accommodation. More than 30,000 people in the region around the University of Kent in England, where a student died from the infection, have been contacted about the outbreak, according to the UK Health Security Agency. At least 11 people are seriously ill and hospitalized with the infection.
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Young people in the UK are routinely vaccinated against the disease. Health officials there recommend giving the vaccine Bexsero, which protects against meningococcal group B bacteria, to babies aged eight weeks, followed by a second dose at 12 weeks of age and a booster at one year old. Another vaccine, the MenACWY shot, provides additional protection against four species of bacteria that can cause the disease; it is offered to 14-year-olds and people up to the age of 25 who have never had a Hib/MenC vaccine, which protects against Haemophilus influenzae type b and meningococcal group C bacteria. (Previously, babies in the UK were administered a combined vaccine that included MenC, although the country recently changed its guidance to instead offer the MenACWY shot at 18 months.) It is unclear which strain of meningitis is behind the current outbreak.
Meanwhile in the US, under the leadership of US Health and Human Services and long-time vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped recommending a routine meningococcal vaccine for babies last December – a decision dismissed by public health experts as a risk to children’s lives. The agency still recommends that all children should receive the MenACWY vaccine when they are between 11 and 12 years of age and a booster at 16 years of age.
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