title: Meningococcal pneumonia.
abstract: Neisseria meningitidis remains the most important cause of bacterial meningitis worldwide, particularly in children and young adults. The second most common and a potentially severe end-organ manifestation of invasive meningococcal disease (excluding systemic sepsis) is meningococcal pneumonia. It occurs in between 5% and 15% of all patients with invasive meningococcal disease and is thus the second most common non-systemic end-organ manifestation. To establish the diagnosis requires a high level of clinical awareness - the incidence is therefore very likely underreported and underestimated. This review of 344 meningococcal pneumonia cases reported in the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia between 1906 and 2015 presents risk factors, pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, diagnostic approaches, treatment, and prognosis of meningococcal pneumonia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine I, Div. of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vossen
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Div. of Clinical Microbiology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mitteregger
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine I, Div. of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: christoph.steininger@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Steininger
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008589:Meningococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009345:Neisseria meningitidis; D018410:Pneumonia, Bacterial / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: Invasive meningococcal disease; Neisseria meningitidis; Pneumonia