Meningococcal is a rare but very serious infection that can lead to blood poisoning and/or brain infection (meningitis), writes Associate Professor Nicholas Wood.

As a medical researcher and parent of two teenagers there is one bug, Neisseria meningitidis, that really scares me. This is mainly because of the speed and severity of the infection it causes, called meningococcal disease, and its predilection for infecting healthy adolescents and younger children.

Meningococcal is a rare, but very serious infection that can lead to blood poisoning (septicemia) and/or brain infection (meningitis).

The initial symptoms can be vague and non-specific. This includes the sudden onset of fever and a rash. The rash can be either red-purple spots or bruises—detected by the classic pushing-a-glass-on-the-skin test to see if the rash goes away (and is therefore less likely to be meningococcal)—or a flat or raised non-specific rash.

Other symptoms can be mistaken for disease like the flu and include headache, neck stiffness, reduced consciousness, muscle aches, joint pain, nausea, and vomiting. If you are at all worried see your GP.

Once infected the death rate is around 5–10%. About 10–30% of children and adolescents who survive the disease can develop permanent complications, such as limb deformity, skin scarring, deafness, and neurological deficits.

Early diagnosis and treatment with antibiotics can improve the patient’s outcomes but the disease can largely be prevented by vaccination.