STUDENTS have begun to receive a meningitis B vaccine following a deadly outbreak of the bug in Kent.

About 5,000 students from the Canterbury campus of the University of Kent are being offered the jab, alongside courses of antibiotics.

The vaccine rollout comes after two students died and 18 more cases were being investigated by the UKHSA following an outbreak of meningitis linked to a nightclub.

GPs across the country have now been told to prescribe antibiotics to anyone who visited Club Chemistry in Canterbury from March 5-7, plus students from the University of Kent.

The UKHSA stressed there NHS stocks of menB vaccines are plentiful, after pharmacies reported they were struggling to obtain stock for people who want to pay privately.

UKHSA chief executive Susan Hopkins said that officials were looking at a “super-spreader event,” adding: “It’s the explosive nature that is unprecedented here – the number of cases in such a short space of time.”