Brain Fever. How Vaccines Prevent Meningitis and Other Killer Diseases

Meningitis and Vaccines: An Introduction
A Bacterial World
Bacterial Assassins
Becoming a Medical Doctor
On the Shoulders of Giants
Becoming a Clinician-Scientist
Early Research on Hi-b Vaccines
Johns Hopkins Hospital
Snake Venom, Bottlenecks and Genetics: The Challenges of Research
A Needle in a Haystack: Searching for Virulent Bacterial Genes
Promotion: New Opportunities and Challenges
Reverse Culture Shock and the Dreaming Spires of Oxford
Developing and Implementing the Hi-b Conjugate Vaccines
Laboratory Research: Bacterial Genetics in Oxford
Sabbatical in the Mid-West
The Conjugate Vaccines and the Formation of the Oxford Vaccine Group
The New Genetics and Genome Sequencing
Siena and Vaccine Research
Genomics and the Wellcome Trust
The Last Frontier: A Vaccine Against Meningococcus B
A New Era in Meningitis Vaccines
The Most Important Medical Intervention in History
Trust and Mistrust in Vaccines

In Brain Fever, the internationally renowned medical scientist, Richard Moxon FRS, shares his experiences of bacterial meningitis, a fearful and devastating infection of the brain. In a clear, non-technical style, he explains what meningitis is, what causes it, who gets it and how research has come up with vaccines that can prevent it.

A paediatrician, Moxon engages the reader in a compelling story of how chance, opportunity and passion drew him into researching the bacteria that are the dangerous assassins of unsuspecting, previously healthy people, especially young children. Moxon traces the story of his involvement as one of the extraordinary and inspiring group of scientists who pioneered a milestone in medical history: the development of vaccines to prevent bacterial meningitis.

In this must-read book, Brain Fever provides expert insight into what it takes to develop a vaccine. As we are learning from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is vaccines that we rely on to fight and overcome the devastation caused by virulent pathogens. His message is clear and challenging: no other intervention in the history of medicine confers a greater public health benefit than immunisation.