NHS Choices has carried out an assessment of a report in the Daily Mail about the possibility of a “universal vaccine” that could be “the key to beating all forms of meningitis”. The news is based on research in mice, which investigated the potential for a protein-based vaccine against Streptococcus pneumoniae. The assessment noted “whilst this research found that a protein-based vaccine gave mice protection against pneumococcal bacteria, there is still a long way to go before it could be used in humans. A vaccine based on this technology would first need to be developed for testing in humans and then be proven effective and safe through various clinical trials. The most common life-threatening form of bacterial meningitis in the UK is meningococcal meningitis. This is caused by the Neisseria meningitidis bacterium, which was not examined in this research.”