UK scientists find genetic clues behind Kent’s meningococcal outbreak

Stanley Murphy-Johns/PA Wire

By Emma Wilkinson reporting from the UKHSA conference

UK scientists have uncovered dramatic genetic changes in the meningococcal B bacteria that was behind the super-spreader event in Kent earlier this year.

Experts at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the University of Oxford used genome sequencing to discover that the Neisseria meningitidis bacteria that causes the disease picked up small pieces of DNA from other bacteria through horizontal gene transfer.

It enabled the bacteria to borrow genetic traits from less harmful bacteria found naturally in the throats of many healthy people without reproducing.

The genetic changes altered how the bacteria interacted with human cells, according to the analysis, presented at the UKHSA annual conference in Manchester.

It made it particularly effective at causing severe illness and may have potentially impacted how it was recognised by the immune system, the researchers believe.

Public health teams also shared details of the scale of the response after cases increased to a level never seen before in the UK over a 24-hour period.