Neisseria meningitidis

General:

Clinical: Abrupt onset of fever, nausea, vomiting, and headache & other meningeal signs.

• Normal: Nasopharynx and oral cavity, usually transient.
• Abnormal: Meningitis (second most common cause of community acquired in adults), pneumonia (with prolonged close contact), urethritis, arthritis, sepsis with petechiae, microvascular thrombosis & multiorgan damage, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and/or shock with bilateral destruction of adrenal glands (Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome).

Resistance:

Morphology: Encapsulated gram- diplococcus, often with adjacent sides flattened together (resembling coffee beans). Not motile and do not form endospores.

Growth characteristics: Oxidase+, aerobic, oxidizes both glucose and maltose. Antigenic differences in capsule is the basis for serogrouping (A, B, C, H, I, K, L, W-135, X, Y, Z, 29E).

Common/important pathogens: