Infant meningococcal vaccination appears effective

A vaccine for serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis (MenB), a bacterium that causes of serious disease such as sepsis and meningitis, was effective against meningococcal strains and produced minimal interference with routine infant vaccinations. Certain MenB vaccines have proved effective in clinical trials and controlled a clonal MenB outbreak in New Zealand; however, the high strain specificity of these vaccines limited their usefulness. Nicoletta Gossger of the University of Oxford and colleagues assessed the immunogenicity (the ability to produce an immune response) and reactogenicity (producing adverse reactions) of a vaccine developed to provide broader protection, a multicomponent serogroup B meningococcal vaccine (4CMenB), in a large group of infants. 4CMenB was immunogenic, generally well tolerated and showed minimal interference with routine vaccines in the first year of life.