The disease is the most common and deadliest form of meningitis
on the country, affecting an average of 1,870 people a year,
many of them children – and resulting in death for one in 10
sufferers. The approval of the new 4CMenB vaccine, which is
developed by pharmaceutical company Novartis, has been hailed as
the "biggest leap forward in the field in the three decades" by
the charity Meningitis UK. It received a "positive opinion"
verdict from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), meaning that
the vaccine is considered safe and effective. It will be the
first Meningitis B vaccine approved for use in the UK, which has
one of the highest incidence rates in the world. One in four
sufferers are left with life changing after-effects, such as
brain damage and limb loss, with children under five most at
risk from the disease. It can sometimes kill babies and toddlers
in under four hours. The charity said the next stage will be to
give the vaccine – trade name Bexsero – a marketing licence,
with 99% of positive opinio