Meningococcal infection: clinical and epidemiological characteristics in modern conditions

The problems of the incidence of meningococcal disease and the epidemiological situation in the world, in the Russian Federation and in the Armed Forces are consecrated. In the past decade, there has been a global decline in the incidence of meningococcal disease, but there is still the possibility of new outbreaks and epidemics. From 1996 to 2016, a decrease in the incidence of meningococcal disease was also noted in Russia. In certain regions of the Russian Federation, an increase in incidence was recorded, which did not affect the general trend. Against this background, the idea was formed that in the coming years, thanks to a favorable epidemiological situation and the possibility of preventing meningococcal infection with the help of a vaccine, it is possible to achieve control of this infection. However, meningococcus showed all the classic properties of variability and fitness. Changes in the structure of circulating serogroups of meningococcus led to the formation of a non-immune layer of the population in the face of increasing pathogenicity of the dominant serogroups. The activity of the epidemic process is indirectly indicated by the high diversity of genetic and serological clonal complexes, serogroups and serotypes of the pathogen. The incidence of meningococcal disease over the past ten years in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation can be assessed as low, but mortality has high values. The peak incidence was in 2010, but the maximum percentage of mortality was in 2017-18,2%. The increase in mortality from invasive forms of meningococcal infection, on the one hand, is associated with an increase in the total number of sources of this infection, on the other hand, with errors in early diagnosis and, as a consequence, in the incorrect provision of emergency care at the prehospital stage, which recur from year to year and are of a similar nature.

meningococcal infection, meningococcemia, morbidity, mortality, early diagnosis, epidemiological situation, clinical presentation, prevention