NEWS YOU CAN USE: Meningitis shot also offers some defense against gonorrhea, study finds. “Researchers studying a mass vaccination campaign against meningitis have found a surprising side effect – the shots also offered moderate protection against gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted infection that is causing global alarm. The findings, published in The Lancet medical journal on Tuesday, mark the first time an immunization has shown any protection against gonorrhea and point to new avenues in the search for a gonorrhea vaccine, scientists said. . . . Gonorrhea has become an increasingly urgent global health problem in recent years as strains of the bacterial infection have developed high levels of drug resistance. The World Health Organization warned last week that some totally drug-resistance superbug strains of the disease already pose a major threat. Yet so far, efforts to develop a gonorrhea vaccine have yielded disappointing results.”