Meningitis warning

Most UK teenagers will lose immunity to meningitis C seven years after vaccination, according to the Oxford Vaccine Group, an independent clinical trials group based at Oxford University (www.ox.ac.uk/ovg).

    Their study, presented at the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID) in Nice, found that only 25 per cent of 250 children tested had sufficient antibody levels to preserve immunity seven years after vaccination. Although the children will be protected by herd immunity, this is expected to last only until 2015. Personal immunity could be prolonged by a booster vaccination programme for teenagers.