John von Radowitz

A meningitis B vaccine that could protect millions of UK children against the deadly disease for the first time has performed well in a preliminary trial, it was revealed yesterday.

The MenB vaccine from pharmaceutical giants Novartis was tested on 150 British infants who were immunised at two, four and six months of age. A fourth dose was given when they were one year old.

A month after the third treatment, the vaccine produced immunity against three meningitis B strains in 85%, 89% and 96% of the children.

The fourth dose proved effective against the same strains in 93%, 98% and 100% of the children, indicating an immune system "memory" response.

But to provide community protection the vaccine must work against a large number of meningitis B strains. Eighty-five strains were examined when developing the vaccine.

The scores of different strains, each with their own array of bacterial proteins, have so far thwarted attempts to produce an effective meningitis B vaccine.

But the new vaccine contains an assortment of proteins thought to exist in most of the strains responsible for the disease worldwide. These proteins, found on the surface of the meningitis bacteria, must be recognised by the immune system for the vaccine to work.

Although vaccines are available against the meningitis A and C subtypes, none yet exists which can tackle meningitis B, the leading cause of bacterial meningitis across the world.

Meningococcal disease, caused by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis, affects the membranes around the brain and spinal cord and may produce septicaemia or blood poisoning. Without treatment, death can occur in 24 hours.

Around 3000 meningitis infections occur each year in the UK, resulting in 230 deaths. Of these cases, two thirds are caused by meningitis B.

Dr Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group at Oxford University, who helped conduct the trial, said: "The problem with producing a vaccine against meningitis B is that there are so many different strains. These initial results show that the vaccine induces an immune response against strains containing the vaccine components. The next step is to find how broad these responses are against other strains.

"There is still a long way to go, but a vaccine that gave broad protection against meningitis B would be hugely significant."