Credit: Simon Fraser/Newcastle Hospitals NS Trust/Science Photo Library Caption: Meningitis. Coloured magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of a section through the head of a 34 year old woman, showing meningitis (yellow). The brain is seen, with the folded cerebrum (at top), brainstem (centre), and cerebellum (centre right). The spinal cord passes into the neck. Meningitis infection is coloured yellow on surfaces of the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis is an inflam- mation of the meninges, the membranes that cover and protect the brain and spinal cord. It is caused by either bacterial or viral infection. Viral meningitis is a mild form; bacterial menin- gitis is very dangerous and requires antibiotics.Meningitis, the inflammation of the protective lining around the brain and spinal cord, is a serious condition for young and old and can be fatal. Typically 1 in 10 victims will die in the UK, a process that can take as little as 4 hours in some cases. While vaccines have been developed for most known subtypes of the meningitis-causing bacteria, Neisseria meningitides, group B currently accounts for approximately 90% of all confirmed cases in the UK. The primary cause being that until now no suitable vaccine had existed for serogroup B. However, Chilean researchers at Universidad de Chile have recently conducted an important randomised controlled trial assessing a new vaccine developed to protect against the remaining

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