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...

INTRODUCTION Invasive meningococcal disease can be difficult to detect early in its course when patients may appear well and the severity of their illness is obscured by non-specific complaints. CASE PRESENTATION We report five cases of meningococcal sepsis in adult patients who presented to an emergency department early in the course of their disease, but whose severity of illness was not re...

In 1997, the death of a young western Australian woman made meningococcal disease a media issue. The publication of horror stories of babies losing limbs created panic and the sense of an epidemic out of control. As we move into the peak period for occurrence of meningococcal disease in 1998, it is timely to review the 1997 data from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) ...

Cellulitis is a rare manifestation of meningococcal disease. We describe the case of a previously healthy 4-month-old female infant who developed periorbital cellulitis associated with meningococcal meningitis. Pediatrics 2005;116:e874–e875. URL: www.pediatrics.org/ cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2005-0694; meningitis, meningococcal disease. ABBREVIATION. CSF, cerebrospinal fluid. Periorbital cellulitis ...

In the report "Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Recommended Immunization Schedule for Adults Aged 19 Years or Older - United States, 2017," on page 138, the fifth bullet point under the heading "Meningococcal vaccination" should have read "Young adults aged 16 through 23 years (preferred age range is 16 through 18 years) who are healthy and not at increased risk for serogroup B meni...

IgA purified from the sera of patients convalescing from disseminated group C meningococcal disease induced human monocyte-mediated anti-meningococcal activity in vitro in the absence of complement. Both IgA- and IgG-dependent activity were directed against the group C meningococcal polysaccharide (Csss) capsule. The amount of IgA that was effective bound less than 1 ng of Csss. Antibacterial a...

During the first 12 months of an emergency meningococcal ACWY vaccination program for teenagers in England, coverage among persons who left school in 2015, the first cohort to be vaccinated, was 36.6%. There were 69% fewer group W meningococcal cases than predicted by trend analysis and no cases in vaccinated teenagers.

Trends in invasive meningococcal disease in Utah during 1995-2005 have differed substantially from US trends in incidence rate and serogroup and age distributions. Regional surveillance is essential to identify high-risk populations that might benefit from targeted immunization efforts.

One thousand two hundred and ninety-seven meningococcal isolates of clinical significance were submitted for examination to the PHLS Meningococcal Reference Unit in 1993; almost the same total as in 1992. Changes in the number of isolates from individual regions ranged from falls of 25% to increases of 42%. The incidence of meningococcal disease rose late in 1993, apparently affected by the epi...