Scientists discover why Kent meningitis outbreak was so severe

Scientists say they have discovered why the bacteria responsible for the UK's worst outbreak of meningitis B in Kent earlier this year proved so dangerous.

More than 20 young people, mostly students, were infected in the March outbreak , linked to a Canterbury nightclub. All needed hospital treatment, while nine ended up in intensive care and two died.

Experts at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the University of Oxford, who have looked at the DNA of the bacterium , external , say it picked up some genetic material from other bugs found naturally in the throats of some people.

This exchange created a new strain or variant that then spread between clubbers and caused severe illness.

Experts stress the meningitis vaccine currently being offered to more than a million young people starting university protects against it.

"This investigation shows just how quickly and dramatically these bacteria can change," says Dr Charlene Rodrigues, consultant in Pathogen Genomics at UKHSA.

"The fact this outbreak variant was able to spread to so many young people was due to the social environment, a place where lots of close social mixing takes place."

Speaking exclusively to the BBC, she said bacteria are known to undergo changes like this, known as horizontal gene transfer.