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Meningococcal Infections

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Bacterial Infections of Humans

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Abstract

The meningococcal diseases* represent a spectrum of illness caused by Neisseria meningitidis.Although sporadic endemic cases occur throughout the world, massive, devastating epidemics tend to reflect conditions of crowding, mobilization, and enclosed institutional populations. Such outbreaks tend to be extraordinarily disruptive, especially because of the fear and fright that they induce in the affected populations. Among civilians , children are most often attacked, with mortality rates of 80–90% having been noted in some epidemics that occurred before effective therapeutic agents became available. The disease is also known as “cerebral spinal fever” and “epidemic cerebral spinal meningitis” and by other names. Mobilization for war, with the induction of many young men into crowded military camps, has generally been accompanied by outbreaks. This has been in contrast to the absence of such outbreaks among college freshmen, who also represent a mix from many diverse origins, in dormitories and other sometimes crowded living quarters on many campuses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Pediatrics and Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, 06510, USA

    Robert S. Baltimore

  2. Department of Preventive Medicine, State University of New York, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, New York, 13210, USA

    Harry A. Feldman

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  1. Robert S. Baltimore
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  2. Harry A. Feldman
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    Alfred S. Evans (John Rodman Paul Professor of Epidemiology, Emeritus) (John Rodman Paul Professor of Epidemiology, Emeritus)

  2. Emory University School of Public Health, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Philip S. Brachman

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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Baltimore, R.S., Feldman, H.A. (1991). Meningococcal Infections. In: Evans, A.S., Brachman, P.S. (eds) Bacterial Infections of Humans. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1211-7_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1211-7_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-1213-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-1211-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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