Tilly Collenette, 19, is a second-year law student at the University of Kent and returned home yesterday after an outbreak of meningitis B in Canterbury has led to 17 cases, including two deaths.
The outbreak is thought to be linked to the nightclub Chemistry, and anyone who visited it on 5, 6 or 7 March has been urged to come forward to receive precautionary doses of antibiotics.
Miss Collenette said the club is in the same street as her home in the city. ‘I go there all the time,’ she said. ‘It’s a fun club.’
But on Saturday 7 March she changed her mind. ‘I was supposed to go out but decided I didn’t really want to.’
The first she knew of the outbreak was when a friend was sent a letter saying they were a close contact of someone who had fallen ill.
‘Two days later the BBC news article came out and it was ages later that the university responded to it.
‘There was quite a bit of panic and stress because the university had decided not to tell us. They were quite secretive.’
She was later contacted because someone she knew was a carrier, although they had not shown any symptoms, and this was while she was pondering queuing up to receive antibiotics.
This brought back memories of another disease outbreak a few years ago. ‘It was just like Covid. There were masks, social distancing, washing hands. I really didn’t want to join the queue because there was so many people there but then I got the message that I’d been in direct contact with a carrier.’
Miss Collenette said her friends were all very worried.
‘I went more into “organisation mode” – I’m quite good in a crisis. I was straight on to contacting everyone and making arrangements.’
With the Easter holidays about to start Miss Collenette was supposed to come home next Sunday with her parents after they had been to see her appearance in a university production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. That has been postponed and she said it may well be staged next term.
Of more immediate concern is an important exam, which she was due to sit on Monday, but will now take today at home.
After her train arrived too late for her lunchtime flight from Gatwick yesterday she said she had time to do a bit of ‘airport revision’ while waiting for the next plane.
Teaching at the university has finished for the term but while the two campuses at Canterbury and Medway remain open, exams have been moved online and in-person assessments have been cancelled.
Hundreds of students and members of the public have been given antibiotics as a precautionary measure.
‘This is a regional public health matter and not specific to the university. The response is being led by the UK Health Security Agency and we are working with them and partners as the situation unfolds,’ the university said in a statement issued yesterday morning.
Harry Swain, 21, is studying wildlife conservation at Kent.
He has been visiting his family in the island recently, having left Oman in the Middle East two days before the first attack on Iran.
Mr Swain is heading back to Kent today to see his girlfriend and will then be flying to Hawaii to begin an internship with the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project in Hawaii as part of his year in professional practice during which he will support efforts to conserve and recover native forest bird populations.
He is ‘a bit concerned’ about going back to the county.
‘I’ll be taking necessary precautions such as wearing a mask in crowded places and public transport, and using hand sanitiser,’ he said.
He was saddened to hear about the deaths and hospitalisation of fellow students and other people and said all of his friends were also worried about the meningitis outbreak. ‘We received notice from the university around 9pm, I believe just after I saw news articles covering the topic appearing on BBC,’ he said.
‘This caused panic among my friends and I felt the university could’ve been quicker to respond.’
He said some of his friends were puzzled as to why the university remained open.