.<\/strong><\/p>\nAmira Campbell, president of the National Union of Students, said: “We are saddened to hear of the deaths, those who are hospitalised and the young people who are unwell.<\/p>\n
“Our thoughts are with their family, friends and everyone at the University of Kent.<\/p>\n
“We encourage everyone who is concerned to follow the advice being shared by health professionals.<\/p>\n
“There is simply not enough awareness of meningitis, especially as young people head off to university.<\/p>\n
“While we all expect the inevitable freshers flu, there are deadly viral strains also circulating, which students need to be protected against and aware of.”<\/p>\n
A case of meningitis has been confirmed in a student at The Norton Knatchbull School in Ashford. <\/p>\n
Headteacher, Ben Greene, sent the following update to parents: “We are writing to update you following our earlier communication regarding the student in year 13 who had been admitted to hospital with a suspected case of meningitis.<\/p>\n
“We have now been informed that the diagnosis has been confirmed and the student is receiving appropriate hospital treatment.”<\/p>\n
It added: “We understand that this news may heighten concern within our community. We want to reassure you that we remain in close contact with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and their advice to the school has not changed.”<\/p>\n
The notice said the wider school community does not need any additional measures beyond being vigilant for symptoms.<\/p>\n
Face masks are given out to students as they queue for antibiotics outside a building at the University of Kent in Canterbury. Credit: PA<\/p>\n
A Canterbury school has advised parents on the symptoms of meningitis to look out for following the outbreak in Kent.<\/p>\n
In a letter to parents, Barton Court Grammar School headteacher, Jonathan Hopkins, wrote: “We are aware that some sixth-form students socialise with friends from other schools in the local area and may have visited venues in the city in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
“At this time, we have not been informed that any Barton Court students have been diagnosed with meningitis.<\/p>\n
“We will be contacting the UKHSA South East health protection team to register our concern and seek their guidance, and we will act immediately on any advice they provide.”<\/p>\n
The letter lists symptoms of meningitis to watch out for and advises what to do if any appear.<\/p>\n
“I understand that this will be worrying for many of you. While cases such as this remain rare, awareness of the symptoms and acting quickly are the best protection,” the letter added.<\/p>\n
Helen Whately, MP Conservative for Faversham and Mid Kent has told ITV Meridian parents are extremely concerned: “It\u2019s clearly very worrying for parents. I think the community locally is reeling with the shock of it. <\/p>\n
“It\u2019s come so much out of the blue. You just don\u2019t expect this to affect school kids. So that\u2019s hitting people really hard. I\u2019ve been talking to parents with children at QE Grammar School and how they\u2019re feeling. <\/p>\n
“Children in other years are still going into school but very much wanting reassurance and wanting to know the risks are being looked at and their children will be safe.”<\/p>\n
Reporting History sees journalists join News At Ten anchor Tom Bradby to revisit their remarkable on-the-day reports of the defining events of the modern age. Listen to the episodes below…<\/strong><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sixth form student who died following an outbreak of meningitis in Kent has been named as Year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-831317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116243402988801489","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}