Neisseria meningitidis is the bacterium that causes meningococcal disease, one of the leading sources of community-acquired sepsis and meningitis among children. Both sporadic and epidemic disease can occur, and a large number of individuals can become infected within a short period of time. The manner by which meningococcal disease strikes previously healthy individuals, with a rapid progressi...

BACKGROUND In Niger, epidemic meningococcal meningitis is primarily caused by Neisseria meningitidis (Nm) serogroup A. However, since 2002, Nm serogroup W135 has been considered to be a major threat that has not yet been realized, and an unprecedented incidence of Nm serogroup X (NmX) meningitis was observed in 2006. METHODS Meningitis surveillance in Niger is performed on the basis of report...

Introduction Meningococcal infection may present as meningitis or as acute-fulminating, subacute or chronic sepicaemia. There may be associated arthritis, vasculitis, episcleritis and intravascular coagulation (Whittle et al., 1973). Such complications which usually occur between 3 and 10 days from the onset of the illness, when patients are otherwise improving, have been attributed to immune c...

The clinical presentation of infections by Neisseria meningitidis is highly diverse. Some patients with invasive meningococcal infections develop meningitis, while others present with sepsis or even septic shock. Three major host defence systems are activated after transepithelial passage and invasion of the bacteria into the bloodstream. These include the complement pathway, the inflammatory r...

Epidemics of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) caused by meningococcal serogroup A have been eliminated from the sub-Saharan African so-called "meningitis belt" by the meningococcal A conjugate vaccine (MACV), and yet, other serogroups continue to cause epidemics. Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W remains a major cause of disease in the region, with most isolates belonging to clonal complex...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the usefulness of Gram staining and culture of skin lesions in patients with acute meningococcal infections. DESIGN Retrospective study. SETTING Community hospital and intensive care unit of a teaching hospital. SUBJECTS 51 patients admitted from 1989 to 1993 with proved meningococcal infections and microbiological examination of specimens from skin lesions. INTER...

Meningococcal conjugate vaccines are today successfully deployed in universal programs for children and adolescents in different geographic regions to control meningitis and septicemia. However, in adults, the advantages of these conjugates over the older polysaccharide vaccines are less clear. In this randomized clinical trial, we demonstrated that both conjugate and polysaccharide quadrivalen...

Forty-one patients suffering from group A meningococcal meningitis in an area within the epidemic meningococcal belt of tropical West Africa were studied. The serum of only two of these patients contained fibrin degradation products (FDPs). The cerebrospinal fluid of 21 of these cases was also examined for FDPs, which were present in 13. Their presence in the cerebrospinal fluid was associated ...

Neisseria meningitidis is a universally-feared Gram negative diplococcus, and infection confers high rates of morbidity mortality despite effective antimicrobial therapy. Invasive meningococcal disease most commonly presents with meningococcaemia or meningitis. 72-year-old female, previously fit well, was admitted chest pain, associated breathlessness diarrhoea. The clinical picture myopericard...

A 20-y-old male presented with symptoms of meningococcal sepsis and died despite appropriate medical interventions. Blood cultures grew N. meningitidis serogroup Y. The patient had received the meningococcal quadrivalent (A,C,W-135,Y) polysaccharide vaccine 15 mo previously. Because the patient had a history of meningococcal meningitis at age 10, archived serum was obtained for further analysis...