A three-year-old boy arrived at the emergency department of Dana-Dwek Children’s Hospital on Saturday morning in septic shock, with a clinical suspicion of meningococcemia.
It should be noted that this was not meningitis.
Despite the staff’s efforts and resuscitation attempts, the medical team was forced to pronounce him dead.
In a separate incident, a two-year-old child from Beersheba is suspected to have also died from meningococcemia at Soroka Medical Center.
Meningococcus is a relatively rare but especially aggressive disease. In most cases, fever in children is caused by mild viral illnesses, but meningococcus can quickly lead to severe bloodstream infection, organ failure, and death.
What is meningococcemia?
Alongside the need for early detection, pediatricians note that there is a vaccine against meningococcal B, intended to reduce the risk of serious disease from that strain.
Meningococcus, whose medical name is Neisseria meningitidis, is a bacterium that can cause a severe invasive disease. The two main forms are meningitis and a severe bloodstream infection known as meningococcemia.
In meningococcemia, the bacterium enters the bloodstream, rapidly multiplies, and triggers an intense inflammatory response, a drop in blood pressure, coagulation disorders, and damage to vital organs. In some cases, a blood-colored rash also appears, red, purple, or bluish. The disease can develop very quickly, so any suspicion requires urgent treatment.
The bacterium spreads from person to person via respiratory and throat secretions, primarily through close, prolonged contact. Infection can occur through coughing, sneezing, kissing, prolonged exposure to crowded spaces, or exposure to saliva and other bodily fluids.
In some people, the bacterium is present in the throat without causing any illness. This is called carriage. Carriers feel well, but in some cases the bacterium can pass to another person and, in rare cases, enter the bloodstream or the meninges and cause a life-threatening disease.
The disease can affect anyone, including completely healthy children. However, the risk is especially high in infants, toddlers, adolescents, and young adults living in crowded conditions.
Other risk groups include people without a spleen or with impaired spleen function, patients with a weakened immune system, people with complement deficiency, patients taking certain drugs that suppress the complement system, soldiers, boarding school and dormitory residents, and travelers to areas where the disease is more common.
What are the symptoms of meningococcemia?
The first signs may resemble a regular febrile illness: high fever, weakness, drowsiness, restlessness, vomiting, muscle aches, chills, cold hands and feet, or rapid breathing.
In infants and toddlers, the signs may be less clear: refusal to eat, unusual crying, apathy, lack of response, grayish skin, or a rapid deterioration in general condition.
A significant warning sign is a pinpoint rash or small blood spots on the skin that do not disappear when pressed. However, even without a rash, the disease can be severe. Meningitis can be present with severe headache, neck stiffness, sensitivity to light, confusion, and vomiting.