Neisseria meningitidis (meningococcal disease)

Neisseria meningitidis (meningococcus) is an important cause of life-threatening infections in infants, children and young adults.

The most common presentation is acute meningitis characterized by fever and chills, intense headache, stiff neck, vomiting, lethargy or drowsiness, or irritability. Less commonly, patients present with meningococcal septicaemia, a catastrophic constellation of fever, purpuric rash, multiorgan failure and shock of frighteningly rapid onset.

Systemic meningococcal disease carries a significant risk of death.  Despite antimicrobial therapy, 10 percent of patients die, typically within 24-48 hours of onset of symptoms. Another 10-20 percent of survivors are left with permanent sequelae such as neurological disorders or sensorineural deafness.

All countries suffer from endemic meningococcal disease, primarily in children under the age of five, at an annual attack rate of around 1 to 3/100 000 of the population. As this map shows, some countries, predominantly but not exclusively in the developing world, suffer from occasional or repeated epidemics of meningitis.

The major pathogenic Neisseria meningitidis serogroups are A, B, C, W135, and Y. While serogroups A, B, and C are responsible for the majority of cases worldwide, serogroup A causes explosive epidemics predominantly throughout what is known as the African meningitis belt, which extends from Ethiopia in the East, to Senegal in the West, and has an at-risk population of over 400 million.

Photo Credit: Benoît Lange (left); WHO file (right)

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