Meningococcal chest infections in a general hospital

In the course of one calendar year (1989-1990), 46 specimens of respiratory secretions (from 44 patients) cultured in the microbiology department of a large district general hospital in The Netherlands were found to yield Neisseria meningitidis. Twenty-eight of the 46 samples yielded pure cultures o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases 1991-05, Vol.10 (5), p.399-404
Main Authors: DAVIES, B. I, SPANJAARD, L, DANKERT, J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acute Disease
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Bacterial diseases
Bacterial diseases of the respiratory system
Bacteriological Techniques
Biological and medical sciences
Bronchitis - microbiology
Child
Child, Preschool
Chronic Disease
Female
Hospitals, District
Hospitals, General
Human bacterial diseases
Humans
Infectious diseases
Male
Medical sciences
Meningococcal Infections - microbiology
Middle Aged
Neisseria meningitidis - isolation & purification
Netherlands
Pneumonia - microbiology
Respiratory Tract Infections - microbiology
Sputum - microbiology
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Summary:In the course of one calendar year (1989-1990), 46 specimens of respiratory secretions (from 44 patients) cultured in the microbiology department of a large district general hospital in The Netherlands were found to yield Neisseria meningitidis. Twenty-eight of the 46 samples yielded pure cultures of meningococci and 18 yielded other recognised respiratory pathogens as well. Only one patient had pneumonia, whereas 19 had acute respiratory infections and 18 acute purulent exacerbations of chronic bronchitis. The remaining patients, who had a variety of symptoms, all had purulent sputum. Only 8 of the 44 patients were under 40 years of age; 21 were aged more than 60 years. Serological grouping and subtyping showed a predominance of group B strains (in 24 of 44 patients) and 13 strains were non-groupable. The importance of recognising or overlooking meningococci in cultures of respiratory secretions is discussed.
ISSN:0934-9723
1435-4373
DOI:10.1007/bf01968018