Meningococcal septicemia and meningitis continue to be important causes of devastating illness, death, and long-term disability in both developed and resource-poor countries of the world. Few diseases have attracted as much public attention, or are as feared by parents and family members, as well as the medical staff who have to care for affected patients. The unexpected and unp- dictable occurrence of the disease in previously healthy children and young adults, its rapid progression, and the frequent occurrence of purpura fulminans with the resulting gangrene of limbs and digits and the...

Since the first recognition of outbreaks of cerebrospinal or spotted fever at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, the menace of the meningococcus has been high on the list of public health prio- ties. Few if any pathogens surpass the meningococcus in the rapidity and sev- ity with which it devastates previously healthy individuals. The challenge of understanding the biology of this fascinating microbe is immense, but few will doubt that successful control of meningococcal meningitis and septicemia will only transpire through the application of a body of...

Meningococcal septicemia and meningitis continue to be important causes of devastating illness, death, and long-term disability in both developed and resource-poor countries of the world. Few diseases have attracted as much public attention, or are as feared by parents and family members, as well as the medical staff who have to care for affected patients. The unexpected and unp- dictable occurrence of the disease in previously healthy children and young adults, its rapid progression, and the frequent occurrence of purpura fulminans with the resulting gangrene of limbs and digits and the...

Since the first recognition of outbreaks of cerebrospinal or spotted fever at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, the menace of the meningococcus has been high on the list of public health prio- ties. Few if any pathogens surpass the meningococcus in the rapidity and sev- ity with which it devastates previously healthy individuals. The challenge of understanding the biology of this fascinating microbe is immense, but few will doubt that successful control of meningococcal meningitis and septicemia will only transpire through the application of a body of...