Thursday briefing: The largest cluster of cases in a generation – what’s behind the meningitis B outbreak?

In today’s newsletter: After a spate of infections linked to a nightclub in Kent, some parents and experts are questioning the UK’s vaccination regime It is every parent’s worst nightmare. University students enjoying themselves at a nightclub, only to fall ill a few days later with a potentially deadly illness. So far, two young people have died and more are seriously unwell in hospital after a meningitis outbreak in Kent, which appears to have started at Club Chemistry in Canterbury in early March. Health authorities have launched a major response: 30,000 people have been given antibiotics and up to 5,000 University of Kent students will receive a meningitis B vaccine, the strain that is believed to be behind the outbreak.The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has urged calm, explaining that the risk of transmission is low, urging students to keep going to school and insisting that people do not need to seek private vaccinations. But that has not stopped a rush for jabs, causing a nati