Meningococcal disease is any illness caused by Neisseria meningitidis, the meningococcal bacteria. These illnesses are often severe, sometimes deadly — and vaccines can help prevent them.
How it spreads
Many people carry the bacteria in the back of the nose and throat without getting sick — they are carriers. Sometimes the bacteria spread elsewhere in the body and cause disease.
- It passes through saliva, usually after close or long contact — such as kissing or coughing.
- You can't catch it through casual contact, such as breathing air where a sick person has been.
Who is at higher risk
- people who live with someone who has it, or have contact with their saliva;
- babies under 1;
- teens and young adults aged 16–23;
- adults 65 and older;
- people with weakened immune systems, including those with HIV and certain rare immune diseases;
- people without a spleen or with a spleen that doesn't work well;
- people taking complement inhibitors, immunotherapy medicines for certain rare conditions;
- people in crowded settings, such as college dorms and military barracks;
- travelers to places where it is more common, such as parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
Two main forms — both can kill within hours
| Meningococcal meningitis | Meningococcal septicemia (meningococcemia) | |
|---|---|---|
| What | infection of the lining of the brain and spinal cord | bacteria multiply in the bloodstream, damaging blood vessel walls and causing bleeding into skin and organs |
| Symptoms | fever, headache, stiff neck; also nausea and vomiting, sensitivity to light, confusion | fever and chills, fatigue, vomiting, cold hands and feet, severe pain in muscles, joints, chest or belly, fast breathing, diarrhea, and later a dark purple rash |
In babies, signs can be hard to spot and different: being slow or inactive, irritable, vomiting, feeding poorly, or a bulging soft spot on the head.
Get medical care immediately if you or your child develop these symptoms.
Diagnosis and treatment
- Symptoms resemble other illnesses, so providers test blood and/or cerebrospinal fluid; lab cultures identify the exact bacteria and guide treatment.
- Antibiotics treat it — given right away, before results come back.
- Serious cases may need breathing support, medicine for low blood pressure, surgery to remove dead tissue, and wound care for damaged skin.
- Even with treatment, 10 to 15 of every 100 people with the disease die. Some survivors have lasting problems: loss of limbs, deafness, nervous system problems or brain damage.
Prevention
Vaccination is the best protection. CDC recommends meningococcal vaccines for:
- all preteens and teens;
- children at higher risk;
- adults at higher risk.
Close contacts of someone with the disease — household members, or anyone who had contact with their saliva — are usually given preventive antibiotics (prophylaxis). It's rare, but you can get meningococcal disease more than once.
Sources
Based on "Meningococcal Disease," MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, with its summary from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from medlineplus.gov
1
0
0
0
Comments
