Rates of meningococcal infection, rotavirus and HPV are rising. The situation is complicated by a demographic peak in 2014-2015, which means currently has a record number of teenagers who are highly vulnerable to these diseases.
In March 2026, an outbreak of group B meningitis occurred in the British county of Kent. The outbreak began in a nightclub in the university city of Canterbury. By April 1, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) had received notification of 21 confirmed cases; two people died.
British Health Secretary Wes Streeting called the outbreak “unprecedented in its spread.” The reason is that the UK has only offered routine meningitis B vaccination to infants since 2015, meaning most current university students likely never received it. The process of including the vaccine in state programmes took at least a decade and required significant efforts from epidemiologists. That delay was the cause of the outbreak.
Slow inclusion of new vaccines into national programmes is not unique to Britain. In Russia, deadlines for adding highly contagious infections to the National Immunisation Schedule have been repeatedly postponed. The government has already pushed back rotavirus vaccination from 2022 to 2025, and HPV vaccination from 2024 to 2026. Meningococcal vaccination was supposed to be added in 2025. The new target date for including HPV and meningococcal vaccines is 2027.