Chronic meningococcemia in a 16-year-old boy: A case report

Abstract

Herein, we present a case of meningococcal disease in a patient presenting with of a three-week history of fever, cutaneous vasculitis and joint pain, in whom chronic meningococcemia was retained as presumptive diagnosis, after the disease evolved towards meningitis. This unusual case illustrates the great heterogeneity in possible clinical presentations of Neisseria meningitidis infections and underlines that diagnosis should always be evocated when facing the triad of fever, vasculitic skin eruption and big joints arthralgia, in a person in otherwise good general condition. © 2009 Kernéis et al.; licensee Cases Network Ltd.