Meningitis in the United Kingdom and the United States of America

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Recommended: Neisseria meningitidis under the microscope

Neisseria meningitides causes systemic infections like meningococcal meningitis and meningococcal septicaemia which are bacterial infections. Neisseria meningitides is only found in humans. Neisseria meningitidis is present with the normal flora of the mouth in the back of the throat or nose and will seldom cause disease. It is hard to explain why some individuals carry the bacteria without them getting affected while others contract meningococcal disease. About 10% of the general population will be affected by Neisseria meningitidis, with the utmost carriage (roughly 25%) in 15-19 year olds. It is transmitted from individual to individual by inhaling respiratory secretions from the mouth and throat or by direct contact. Close long standing contact is usually needed to transmit the bacteria. They can’t survive for long outside the body (HPA 2011).

Premature signs and symptoms of meningococcal disease may be vague and thus hard to differentiate from influenza or other diseases. Premature symptoms comprise of fever, vomiting, malaise and lethargy (HPA 2011). The normal incubation period is four days, but can vary between 2-10 days (WHO 2011).

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where maximum cases are usually found, it is called the meningitis belt, the belt is starts from Senegal which is in the west of the country to Ethiopia which lies in the east. Group A meningococcus shares an estimated 80-85% of all the cases in this belt, with epidemics taking place every 7-14 years. During the epidemic season of 2009, 14 African countries using enhanced surveillance reported 88199 suspected cases, which included 5352 deaths, a record number since the 1996 epidemic (WHO 2011).

In the UK, meningococcal meningitis is rare, but per...

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...ple. Edinburgh: SIGN, 2008.

Stanwell-Smith RE, Stuart JM, Hughes AO, Robinson P, Griffin MB, Cartwright KAV. Smoking, the environment and meningococcal disease: a case control study. Epidemiol Infect 1994; 112: 315-28.

Stuart JM, Cartwright KAV, Robinson PM, Noah ND. Effect of smoking on meningococcal carriage. Lancet 1989; ii: 723-6.

Thompson MJ, Ninis N, Perera R, Mayon-White R, Phillips C, Bailey L, Harnden A, Mant D, Levin M. Clinical recognition of meningococcal disease in children and adolescents. Lancet. 2006;367:397-403.

Trotter CL, Gay NJ, Edmunds WJ. The natural history of meningococcal carriage and disease. Epidemiol Infect 2006 134 : 556 – 66.

WHO 2001. http://www.who.int/csr/don/2001_06_22e/en/index.html (Last accessed on 11/08/2011).

WHO 2011. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs141/en/index.html (Last accessed on 11/08/2011).

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