The Lancet Infectious Disease
Jun 2011  Volume 11  Number 6  Pages 417 – 488
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/issue/current

Outer-membrane-vesicle vaccines: old but not forgotten
David S Stephens

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The Gram-negative bacterial pathogen serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis remains a worldwide cause of meningococcal disease. In The Lancet Infectious Diseases today, Caron and colleagues1 report on a meningococcal serogroup B clonal sequence type (ST)-32 outbreak in France, and the use of a serogroup B outer-membrane-vesicle vaccine designed 20 years earlier in Norway for the outbreak of a different but related ST-32 outbreak strain, which had the same PorA serosubtype. Although several issues complicated the study1 and its implementation (ie, vaccine shortages and manufacturing delays, different schedules in different age groups, and small numbers), the data support the conclusion that the previously designed and assessed vaccine had a positive effect in control of the new outbreak.