Trial boosts hopes for meningitis B jab

There is currently no jab to protect against strains of meningitis B, which account for about 90 per cent of cases in the UK.

Meningitis B is a deadly type – sometimes killing babies and toddlers in under four hours.

Now new data on a vaccine called 4CMenB found it guarded against about 80 per cent of 1,000 meningitis B strains from across Europe.

Results from 1,800 children found it worked well alone or with vaccines for other strains of the disease.

A further study on 1,500 toddlers found it offered protection when given as a booster jab, while another showed an immune response in adolescents.

The charity Meningitis UK said the new vaccine has the potential to save thousands of lives in the future. Chief executive Steve Dayman said the results were exciting, adding: “This data is a very positive step in the fight to eradicate meningitis B, which is the biggest killer of all types of meningitis in the UK.”