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The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chair Olivier Picard has urged the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to urgently publish its recommendations for meningitis B vaccinations and clarify if they will be extended to all teenagers and young adults.

Picard stressed it was important for the JCVI to act now following the deaths of two people linked to an outbreak of the disease at a Canterbury nightclub and news yesterday that a student had died after cases of meningitis B were uncovered in Reading. 

It is understood the student attended Henley College in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. The outbreak in Reading also left two people needing treatment although the Health Security Agency said “the risk to the wider public remains low”.

“Students and staff will naturally be feeling worried about the likelihood of further cases,” said Dr Rachel Mearkle, a consultant in health protection.

“However, meningococcal meningitis requires very close contact to spread and large outbreaks, as we saw in Kent recently, are thankfully rare.

“We are working closely with partners and have provided public health advice and precautionary antibiotic treatment to close contacts of the cases. Meningococcal disease does not spread easily and the risk to the wider public remains low.”

However, Picard, who runs Newdays Pharmacy in Reading, said pharmacies in the area including his own had “seen a very significant increase in demand for vaccination against meningitis B from worried parents”.

"Although pharmacies are now carrying more stock than when we saw the outbreak in Kent, this is having to be managed carefully and it demand could well exceed what pharmacies currently having in supply,” he said.

Currently, the vaccine is being offered to anyone who has been offered antibiotics and been identified as a close contact of a confirmed or probable case of the disease.

Students at the University of Kent who reside on the Canterbury Campus and those at other universities in Canterbury, sixth form students at a school or college in Kent and anyone who visited or was working at Club Chemistry in Canterbury between March 5 and 15 have also been offered the vaccine.

Year 11 pupils in schools where the vaccine has already been made available to year 12 and 13 pupils are due to receive the vaccine.

Pressing the JCVI to provide clarity on whether it will be extended to teenagers and young adults “in light of recent outbreaks”, Picard said: “(The death reported yesterday) is a tragic case and our thoughts are with the friends and family of those affected.

“Concerned families should follow closely advice from the UK Health Security Agency who state the risk to the wider public remains low. Pharmacies stand ready to support public health efforts locally.”

Independent Community Pharmacist has contacted the JCVI for a response.