The UK raised the alarm over a meningitis outbreak as health authorities advised antibiotics and started a targeted vaccination program for prevention.
The country’s Health Security Agency warned of a “rapidly evolving situation” as it counted 20 likely cases, all of them in young adults. The outbreak began in the southeastern county of Kent earlier this month but a patient presented at a London hospital and there may be further contamination, the agency said Wednesday.
Doctors across the country have been advised to prescribe antibiotics to