Atypical Course of the Generalized Form of Meningococcal Infection Serotype W in Young Children

Meningococcal infection (MI) is a current disease with a wide range of clinical manifestations and an aggressive course. The clinical picture of meningococcal infection is characterized by polymorphism of manifestations from asymptomatic to extremely severe forms, leading to death within a few hours. The risk group for MI are children under 5 years of age. The GFMI can be caused by 6 serogroups: A, B, C, W, X and Y. Serotype W had not been registered in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) until recently. With the MI caused by Neisseria meningitidis W, a number of authors note the polymorphism of the clinical picture of the generalized form of meningococcal infection. The presence of various atypical manifestations is characteristic. The article presents three clinical cases of patients with generalized meningococcal infection caused by Neisseria meningitidis, two of whom had the disease caused by serogroup W. Three young patients with similar clinical picture had no contacts confirmed by epidemiological investigation. All three had an atypical onset of the disease, with gastrointestinal syndrome. Eventually, all developed the clinical picture of severe meningoencephalitis. The peculiarity of these cases is isolated meningoencephalitis, without meningococcemia, which is the least common among generalized forms of meningococcal infection. Two patients were diagnosed with mixed infection with Epstein-Barr virus. One patient developed arthritis, according to the classification, related to rare forms of MI. In all patients, the outcome of the disease was sensorineural hearing loss.