Secondary prevention of meningococcal disease

Prevention of meningococcal disease.

Invasive disease caused by Neisseria meningitidis has an average annual incidence of one case per 100,000 in the United States. The disease can be rapidly fatal or result in severe neurologic and vascular sequelae despite antibiotic therapy. Antibiotic chemoprophylaxis with rifampin, ciprofloxacin, or ceftriaxone is required for household and other close contacts. Although the majority of cases...

Secondary cases of meningococcal disease.

Arthritis secondary to meningococcal disease

Arthritis secondary to invasive meningococcemia is rare and has been described as a direct result of bacteremia or as immunoallergic-type arthritis, related to the immune complex. Only a few case series have been reported.This multicenter study aimed to describe the clinical characteristics and therapeutic outcomes of arthritis secondary to meningococcal infection.We performed a 5-year retrospe...

Meningococcal disease: changes in epidemiology and prevention

The human bacterial pathogen Neisseria meningitidis remains a serious worldwide health threat, but progress is being made toward the control of meningococcal infections. This review summarizes current knowledge of the global epidemiology and the pathophysiology of meningococcal disease, as well as recent advances in prevention by new vaccines. Meningococcal disease patterns and incidence can va...

Does eradication of meningococcal carriage in household contacts prevent secondary cases of meningococcal disease?

Comment Strains of meningococci carried in the general population usually belong to non-virulent serological groups and types, even during an epidemic, and hence the ratio of attacks to carriers is low3; in Denmark in 1987 it was 1:17000 (297 cases in a population of 5-1 million). If the secondary attack rate among household contacts of an index case of meningococcal disease is 500-800 times th...