Meningococcal meningitis: stomach pain should be seen as a warning sign

Patients with meningococcal infection generally develop symptoms including a high temperature, vomiting and a stiff neck... but they might also just have a bad stomach ache. This can be so severe that they are sometimes wrongly operated for appendicitis. Teams from the Institut Pasteur and the Department of Pediatrics at Bicêtre Hospital (AP-HP) decided to investigate the question. And the results speak for themselves: 10% of patients infected by the meningococcal strain that is on the rise in Europe suffer from abdominal pain. This atypical form of the disease is becoming increasingly common and needs to be brought to the attention of physicians. The findings are published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

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