Meningitis B outbreak

As you may be aware, there has been an outbreak of Meningitis B in Kent, and we are understandably getting calls from worried patients about Men B vaccinations.

A course of Meningitis B (Men B) vaccines have been given to all babies since 2015, as part of the routine childhood immunisation schedule. They receive the first vaccine at 8 weeks, the second at 12 weeks and the final vaccine when they are 1 year old.  We continue to vaccinate children in this way.

This means people who were born before 2015, when the vaccine programme for babies was introduced, will not have had these vaccines. There is no NHS Men B catch-up programme for these people and GP practices are unable to vaccinate patients outside of the routine cohort.

We CANNOT, at this moment, offer to vaccinate any other people, even if they are travelling to Kent. We will update this guidance should the situation change.

Children in the UK should receive a Men ACWY in school at the age of 14. Any patient who has not had their Men ACWY vaccine is eligible to have this vaccine up until their 25th birthday. If you are unvaccinated and would like to have your catch-up Men ACWY vaccination, please contact the surgery on 01865 242657 to book an appointment. This is an extremely sensible thing to do, but it will not offer protection from the Mengococcal B strains present in the current outbreak.

Some patients may be considering trying to have two courses of the Men B vaccination privately. This BBC news article offers some further information about this:

Why is MenB vaccine not given to teenagers in UK and should they be offered it? - BBC News

Meningitis is a serious condition. Call 999 immediately or go to your nearest A&E if you or someone in your care has meningitis, septicaemia or sepsis. Trust your instincts and do not wait for all symptoms or for a rash to develop. People with meningitis, septicaemia or sepsis can become seriously unwell very quickly.

Call NHS 111 if you're unsure whether it's serious.

The UKHSA article below gives more information about Meningitis and what to do:

What is meningitis? Symptoms, risks and how to protect yourself – UK Health Security Agency

Published: Mar 17, 2026