Neisseria meningitidis

Abstract

Neisseria meningitidisis an exclusive human pathogen. The organism was first recognized by Weichselbaum in 1887 in the spinal fluid of six patients with acute cerebrospinal meningitis. He called itDiplococcus intracellularis meningitidisbecause of the presence of the organism within leukocytes from the spinal fluid. Subsequent studies established the meningococcus as the cause of epidemic cerebrospinal fever and placed the organism in the genusNeisseria. Despite the availability of effective antimicrobials and partially effective vaccines,N. meningitidisremains one of the most frequent causes of rapidly fatal sepsis and meningitis.