Scientific information
Meningitis Research Foundation aims to defeat meningitis and septicaemia through vital scientific research.
The charity also promotes awareness and education, and offers support to people affected by the diseases through in-depth information and befriending.
All research applications are assessed through peer review by independent referees and the Foundation's Scientific Advisory Panel.
The Foundation is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities and has been awarded their Certificate of Best Practice in Peer Review.
There are currently 18 research projects in the programme. Since it was founded in 1989, the charity has awarded 118 research grants, leading to many advances in the prevention, detection and treatment of meningitis and septicaemia. The total value of the Foundation's investment in vital scientific research is nearly £13/€17.55million.
The following list is of current research projects.
Click on the project titles for more information.
Prevention
The development of effective vaccines providing universal protection represents the best prospect for preventing meningitis and septicaemia.
The Hib vaccine has nearly eliminated Hib meningitis, formerly the leading cause of meningitis in young children, from countries where it is used. The introduction of MenC, an effective vaccine against Group C meningococcal disease, has reduced disease rates by over 90%. In 2006, conjugate pneumococcal vaccine was brought into the routine immunisation schedule in the UK.
However, Group B meningococcal disease is still unchecked, and other equally deadly forms of meningitis and septicaemia are still not vaccine-preventable.
Detection
Clinical diagnosis of meningitis and septicaemia has always been difficult, because the early symptoms resemble those of milder infections. By the time the later, more specific signs appear, the disease may be so far advanced that there is little time left for life-saving treatment.
Laboratory diagnosis of meningitis has become increasingly complicated. One reason for this is that life-saving antibiotics kill bacteria in patients with suspected meningitis and septicaemia so that the traditional diagnostic method of growing bacterial cultures from samples of blood or of fluid taken from around the brain (cerebrospinal fluid) does not always work. It is important to develop rapid new techniques that do not rely on the presence of live bacteria. Speedy identification of the cause of infection can enable doctors to make life-saving decisions about the treatment of individual patients. It can also show when public health action is needed to prevent further cases.
Treatment
Despite increased awareness of symptoms, better antibiotics and improvements in intensive care, meningitis and septicaemia continue to take their toll, with a mortality rate of around ten percent, and serious disability, disfigurement and emotional trauma afflicting a proportion of survivors. Although a universally protective vaccine would eliminate the need for treatment, many potentially lethal forms of meningitis are not vaccine preventable. The Foundation's research strategy aims at finding new therapies and optimising the treatment of patients with meningitis and septicaemia to minimise death and disability, as well as improving the outlook for patients left with after effects once they have recovered from these diseases.
Prevention and treatment
Quite often the key to new strategies in meningitis research is to be found in ground-breaking research at a more basic, molecular and cellular level, which does not yet have an application to one aspect in particular. The Foundation also funds a number of projects at this level, which could potentially open new paths to clinical research, either into prevention or treatment of meningitis and septicaemia.
For more information on these projects, contact the Foundation's Head of Research and Medical Information on 01454 281811.
Page last updated 01.06.07