Leading Celebrities Unite To Mark Major Breakthrough In Meningitis Vaccine Development
Meningitis UK's ‘Search 4 A Vaccine Campaign' Is Launched
Today (4 April) a host of well-known celebrities are joining forces to support Meningitis UK's ‘Search 4 A Vaccine Campaign', which aims to raise £7 million over the next seven years to help fund cutting edge research to develop a vaccine against Meningitis B. This launch coincides with the announcement that pioneering research by a top team of scientists, funded by Meningitis UK, is well on the way to developing a vaccine that will help the body's immune system develop antibodies to fight meningococci.
The date of this event - the fourth of the fourth - highlights the devastating fact that meningitis can kill in under four hours. Leading industry figures from Meningitis UK's Scientific Medical Advisory Panel, the Health Protection Agency and Department of Health parliamentary health spokespeople, alongside key major donors and families who have tragically lost loves ones to the disease, will be attending the launch at the Imperial College in Kensington, London.
Meningitis UK's Patron, football legend Denis Law will launch the event. His son Andrew suffered from meningitis and meningococcal septicaemia when he was 24 but made a full recovery. Beverley Knight, Britain's leading soul vocalist, who tragically lost her baby cousin Makai to Meningitis when he was just five and a half months old; Lee Shape, former Manchester United winger who suffered from viral meningitis in the early 90s; and mother of three and concerned parent Philippa Forester, are amongst the stars supporting the ‘Search 4 A Vaccine Campaign'.
Since the charity's inception in 1999, Meningitis UK has invested over £1.5 million into meningitis research projects and the charity is now closer than it has ever been to finding a vaccine, yet it is crucial that it raises a further £7 million to keep funding the potentially life saving research.
Scientists know that around one in 10 people have the meningitis-causing bacteria Neisseria meningitidis living harmlessly in their noses and throats. But what they don't know is why the bacteria sometimes become harmful, spreading to the tissues surrounding the brain causing meningitis and crossing into the bloodstream causing septicaemia.
Meningitis UK is currently funding several pioneering projects run by the UK's top leading scientists who are trying to develop a vaccine.
The search for a vaccine to protect against Meningitis B is complex because the meningococcal group B bacterium is made up of different components which the body sees as friendly rather than foreign. Scientists have been trying to make a vaccine from proteins forund on the surface of the bacteria, however, the variability in these proteins between the different B strains has meant that the antibodies produced will only protect against certain strains - so a vaccine that can fight one type might not be able to fight another. The challenge is to find a vaccine that will protect against all strains.
Dr Pollard, Reader in Paediatric Infection & Immunity and Honorary Consultant Paediatrician at the University of Oxford and his co-researchers are working to make a vaccine from one of the proteins found on the surface of the meningococci.
This February the team produced some positive and exciting results from their pre-clinical studies. By successfully producing this protein, Dr Pollard's team is well on the way to developing a vaccine that will help the body's immune system develop antibodies to fight the meningococci. By already having a response to the harmful bacteria a person could quickly stop the spread of infection.
Already the vaccine candidate is showing strong potential for adult use, the task of research over the coming years is to improve its effectiveness on adults and to find a solution for children under the age of two.
Dr Pollard said: "We have achieved some very exciting and positive outcomes and our research has brought us to a point where can see real progress being made."
"Our major breakthrough is that the data shows the protein is a promising candidate for a vaccine. This year the team is set to expand further, thanks to funding from Meningitis UK, increasing the capacity of researchers and hopefully taking us one step closer to finding a vaccine."
His co-researcher, Professor Ian Feavers from Meningitis UK's Scientific Medical Advisory Panel, said: "In the past ten years there have been significant advances in the search for a comprehensive vaccine against meningococcal meningitis, including disease caused by group B organisms. Meningitis UK, is better placed than ever before to find a way of preventing this devastating disease. With the necessary continuation funding scientists could succeed in sending a vaccine to trial in less than 10 years."
Meningitis UK's Chief Executive Steve Dayman, who lost his son Spencer to meningitis and meningococcal septicaemia in 1982, said: "Meningitis UK is the only charity in the UK fully committed to meningitis vaccine development. We are closer to finding a vaccine then ever before. Each year in the UK there are approximately 2,400 cases of all forms of meningitis of which over 300 people die and hundreds more are left with permanent disabilities.
"Classic symptoms of meningitis are a headache, stiff neck and a dislike of bright light. Common symptoms of meningococcal septicaemia include aching limbs, cold hands and feet and a rash which starts like pin prick marks and develops rapidly into purple bruising. It is crucial that we develop a vaccine and with our team of experts on board we are confident that it is only a matter of time before this happens. We are delighted that we have so many leading industry figures and celebrities backing our ‘Search 4 A Vaccine' campaign.
Beverley Knight, Britain's leading soul vocalist, triple Mobo winner, double Brit Award and Mercury Music Prize nominee, who tragically lost her baby cousin Makai to meningitis, said: "In 72 hours he went from his cot to a hospital morgue. This is the speed at which meningitis kills. Stephanie and Dwayne, his parents, are still struggling to cope with the devastating loss of their only child. His death has left a gaping hole in the lives of our whole family, and what makes this so painful to endure is that our story is being repeated over and over again, every day, in many families all over the UK."
"Measures must be taken to help put an end to the misery suffered by the many thousands affected by meningitis. Education has been a positive step in the right direction, however, we desperately need the funding necessary to find a preventative vaccine. Please support the ‘Search 4 a Vaccine' campaign so we can raise seven million pounds over seven years to put this plan into action."
To coincide with the launch of the Meningitis UK ‘Search 4 A Vaccine' campaign the research charity is inviting people to run, ride or walk for meningitis to help raise money to fund the research.
MeningitisUK · Registered Charity No.1076774
