New MenB vaccine could provide babies with protection against deadly MenW strain

New research recently published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases shows that the new MenB vaccine Bexsero (routinely offered to UK infants since September 2015) should provide additional protection against a particularly harmful strain of MenW (called ST-11). The MenW ST-11 strain has caused a year-on-year increase in cases of meningococcal disease (meningitis and septicaemia) in England since 2009 and is associated with severe illness and a higher death rate than other strains (13% fatality compared to 5-10%). Cases due to this strain nearly doubled from 2014 to 2015. Such was the concern about this rapid rise that the government introduced a programme in August 2015 (which is still ongoing throughout the UK) for teenagers from the age of 13-18 to be given a one off vaccine to protect them from the disease. In this latest research, scientists from Public Health England have used Meningitis Research Foundation’s open access Meningococcus Genome Library to...