Advances towards the prevention of meningococcal B disease: a multidimensional story

Whilst much progress has been made in reducing the burden of bacterial meningitis and septicaemia through vaccination, endemic serogroup B meningococcal (MenB) disease has remained problematic. Polysaccharide-protein conjugate vaccines are now available to protect against Haemophilus influenzae type b, Neisseria meningitidis serogroups A, C, Y and W and thirteen serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae, but this approach has not been used for MenB. Instead efforts have been made to identify protein antigens which, when used in vaccines, will prevent MenB infection and possibly disease due to other serogroups too. The first such vaccine has recently been licensed.