We did not find any associations reaching significance for severe pneumococcal meningitis, but when combined with severe meningitis from all other species (as in the heritability calculations) one marker reached significance when testing for severity: position 64680775 (rs12081070) on chromosome 1, an intronic variant in UBE2U that was associated with unfavourable outcome (MAF = 0.43; odds ratio (OR) = 1.63; p = 2.0 × 10–8) (Supplementary Figs. 2–5). This evidence concerns the gene UBE2U and infectious meningitis.