Meningococcal infection is a serious illness that no one wants to face, because some forms of the disease can develop rapidly and have serious consequences.
The causative agent of the disease are meningococci, which are transmitted from person to person more often by airborne, less often by contact (through things, unwashed hands, discharge of the patient). In themselves, pathogens are very vulnerable and die outside the human body within 30 minutes. The peculiarity of the infection is that the causative agent is present in 1-3% of healthy people, and the number of bacterial carriers exceeds the number of cases hundreds of times. The most common carriers of meningococcal infections are adults, and most cases are affected by children, including newborns.
Manifestations of meningococcal infection in children
There are 4 forms of the disease with various manifestations and course.
1. Meningococcal nasopharyngitis is the most particular manifestation of infection. The onset of the disease has similar symptoms with acute respiratory infections. The child has a fever, a headache in the fronto-parietal region, small discharge from the nose, sore throat and an unproductive cough. Symptoms of the disease go by themselves and do not affect the vital organs. The danger of the disease manifests itself in the fact that nasopharyngitis can precede other more severe forms of the disease.
2. A severe form of infection is meningococcemia , which affects the skin, intoxicates the body and negatively affects the work of internal organs. Symptoms of this form of meningococcal infection in children include: a sharp rise in temperature to 39 ° C, the onset of headache and muscle pain, a delay in urination and stool, but small children may have a loose stool. A distinctive feature of this type of meningococcal infection is a rash that appears within 5-15 hours from the onset of the disease. Rash with meningococcemia appears everywhere and does not disappear when pressed. The rashes differ in a bluish tinge and irregular "star" shape, in the center of which necroses can occur with the formation of ulcers.
3. Another type of disease is meningococcal meningitis , which begins with an intense rise in temperature to 40 ° C, vomiting and severe headache. With this form of the disease, children complain of an intolerable headache with a pulsating character, which is amplified by light and sound stimuli. Meningococcal infection can be induced by characteristic signs:
- Regency of the occipital muscles (impossibility to unbend the head when bending forward);
- Kerning's symptom (the patient lying on his back is bending his leg at right angles to the knee and hip joints and observing the impossibility of unbending the leg in the knee joint);
- tilt of the head and involuntary bending of the legs in the knee joints;
- the appearance of convulsions and the breakdown of consciousness in severe forms of the disease.
4. Meningococcal meningoencephalitis has similar signs with meningococcemia and is diagnosed, like other manifestations of meningococcal infection, with the help of special laboratory studies.
Treatment of meningococcal infection in children
With meningococcal infection, there are cases of fulminant form, which has irreversible consequences due to rapid damage to the body. But such manifestations are very rare, while in most cases timely detection of symptoms and seeking medical help give a favorable outcome of treatment. Nasopharyngitis is treated at home, and other forms of the disease require inpatient treatment with antibiotics. When untimely initiation of treatment, children often suffer from brain damage, neurological disorders, and mental retardation. The most effective measure of prevention of meningococcal infection is vaccination.