Without immunisation, children are much more vulnerable to serious infections such as meningitis C and polio.

Since its introduction, the meningitis C vaccine has reduced cases of group C disease by over 90 per cent.

There are already vaccines against some forms of meningitis, including Hib, meningitis C and pneumococcal meningitis.

This vaccine is different from the meningococcal meningitis C vaccine given to children and adolescents in some countries; it is safe to be given both types of vaccine.

Children are currently vaccinated against meningitis C but there is no vaccine against the B strain which causes around 1,000 cases a year and is fatal in one in five.

The 4CMenB vaccine has been developed in a different way to the current meningitis C vaccine and the authors said the new technique raises the possibility of creating one vaccine against all strains of meningitis.

These include the development of the Hib vaccine which was introduced into the Childhood Immunisation Programme in the UK in 1992, the meningitis C vaccine in 1999, and a vaccine to protect against pneumococcal meningitis in 2006.

Normally, after a completed vaccination programme, your child should have lifelong protection against polio, probable lifelong protection against measles, mumps, rubella and meningitis C, at least ten years' protection against diphtheria and tetanus, and at least three against whooping cough.