MENINGOCOCCAL SEPTICAEMIA

Some bacteria that cause meningitis can also cause septicaemia (blood poisoning) as well as meningitis (inflammation of the lining of the brain). Septicaemia is particularly associated with the meningococcal form. About 80 per cent of people who have meningococcal infection have meningitis, and the rest have septicaemia, which is a serious infection of the bloodstream. Of the 80 per cent who have meningococcal meningitis, around 55 per cent have both meningitis and septicaemia, leaving only 25 per cent suffering from meningitis alone.

Symptoms

Patients suffering from septicaemia develop a rash, called a haemorrhagic rash. This starts as a cluster of tiny blood spots, which look like pin-pricks in the skin. If untreated, these gradually get bigger and become multiple areas of obvious bleeding under the skin surface, like fresh bruises. These "bruises" then join together to form large areas of purple skin damage and discolouration.

Septicaemia can develop very quickly. The patient rapidly becomes unwell, loses interest in food and surroundings, becoming feverish and cold with cool hands and feet, followed by coma and sometimes death. Patients who become unwell more slowly may also develop some of the signs of meningitis.

Infection

If the meningococcus invades the body, it enters from the throat, gets into the bloodstream, and travels via the blood to the meninges (the lining of the brain). In some cases, the bacteria can infect the meninges. In other cases, infection in the bloodstream and in the meninges develops at the same time, and these patients get both septicaemia and meningitis. In a minority of cases, it seems the body can stop the bacterial multiplying in the bloodstream but not in the meninges, and these patients develop meningitis.

Fatality rates for septicaemia are high - around 20 per cent. Septicaemia is a medical emergency and needs urgent treatment with antibiotics.