A life-saving vaccine against meningitis B is due to be licensed for use in the UK in a move that could save thousands of lives.

The most common and deadliest form of meningitis affects an average 1870 people a year, many of them children, and results in death for one in 10 of these.

The approval of the new 4CMenB vaccine, developed by Novartis, has been hailed as the "biggest leap forward in the field in three decades" by the charity Meningitis UK.

It has received a "positive opinion" verdict from the European Medicines Agency, meaning the vaccine is considered safe and effective.

It will be the first meningitis B vaccine approved for use in the UK, which has one of the highest incidence rates in the world.