Gene swap explains Kent meningitis B severity, study finds — SkimNews
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- UKHSA and University of Oxford scientists determined that the meningitis B bacterium from Kent's March outbreak picked up genetic material from other bugs found naturally in human throats via horizontal gene transfer, creating a new variant that proved especially dangerous.
- The Canterbury nightclub outbreak — linked to Club Chemistry and popular with university students — infected more than 20 mostly student-aged young people, hospitalized all of them, sent nine to intensive care, and killed two: a 21-year-old University of Kent student and Juliette Kenny of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Faversham.
- Dr Charlene Rodrigues of UKHSA said the social environment of the nightclub, where lots of close mixing takes place, enabled the variant to spread so rapidly, calling the outbreak "unprecedented" and "explosive" at the time.
- The MenB vaccine currently being offered to over one million young people heading to university this autumn protects against this variant, with first doses available at high street pharmacies until 31 December 2026 and second doses until 31 March 2027.
- The genetic changes that made the strain so dangerous may also explain why the outbreak stayed short-lived — victims became too sick to act as silent carriers who could pass it on unknowingly, according to Dr Rodrigues.
- Prof Robert Heyderman of University College London said the strain could have been carried silently by healthy people for some time before the right conditions aligned for the outbreak to occur, and advisers are now asking the government to consider routine MenB jabs for secondary school pupils around age 15.
Why it matters: A gene swap with harmless throat bacteria created a meningitis B variant with no pre-existing immunity, hospitalizing more than 20 young people and killing two — and with advisers now pushing for routine MenB jabs at age 15, the outbreak exposes a gap in the UK's routine immunization schedule for the age group most at risk.
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