The number of confirmed and suspected meningitis cases in the outbreak in Kent has fallen to 29, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.
It marks a decrease from 34 cases reported on Saturday, and includes two – a 21-year-old student at the University of Kent and a sixth form pupil at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Faversham – who died from the virus last weekend.
It includes confirmed cases and those that remain under investigation.
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The UKHSA said in a statement that some of the cases that were initially confirmed “have been reclassified following further laboratory results and clinical investigation”.
“As further laboratory assessments are completing, we expect some further probable cases to be downgraded in the coming days”, the agency added.
It comes after Kent County Council’s director of public health, Dr Anjan Ghosh, speculated on three “rough” scenarios over the next four weeks.
At a briefing on Friday, he said the “most likely” scenario would see people travelling off campus outside Kent and then spreading the bacteria to others within a household.
The alternative scenarios would see cases remaining contained in Kent or, in a “highly unlikely” worst-case, the outbreak could result in another cluster outside the county.
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