A meningitis outbreak in Kent has been caused by a strain of bacteria that appears to be genetically distinct from anything scientists have seen before. Health officials are working urgently to understand what that means.
As of March 23, 23 young people have been confirmed as cases or considered probable cases of invasive meningococcal disease linked to the outbreak. Two have died. The majority attended a nightclub in Canterbury called Club Chemistry in the first week of March, and almost all are students or young people in education, with an average age of 19.
The strain belongs to a well-known family of meningococcal bacteria called clonal complex 41/44, which accounts for around 40% of invasive meningococcal disease in the UK. Within that family, it sits in a subgroup that has been circulating in England since 2020. But when scientists at the UK Health Security Agency sequenced its genome – essentially reading its genetic code – they found it was slightly different from its closest known relatives, with around 80 genetic differences between it and the most similar strains on record.
