Concurrent meningococcal and herpes simplex infection in a non-immunocompromised child

The Diverse Spectrum of Invasive Meningococcal Disease in Pediatric and Adolescent Patients: Narrative Review of Cases and Case Series

INTRODUCTION

Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is a potentially life-threatening disease caused by Neisseria meningitidis infection. We reviewed case reports of IMD from newborns, infants, children, and adolescents, and described the real-life clinical presentations, diagnoses, treatment paradigms, and clinical outcomes.

METHODS

PubMed and Embase were searched for IMD case reports on patients aged ≤ 19 years published from January 2011 to March 2023 (search terms "Neisseria meningitidis" or "invasive meningococcal disease", and "infant", "children", "paediatric", pediatric", or "adolescent").

RESULTS

We identified 97 publications reporting 184 cases of IMD, including 25 cases with a fatal outcome. Most cases were in adolescents aged 13-19 years (34.2%), followed by children aged 1-5 years (27.6%), children aged 6-12 years (17.1%), infants aged 1-12 months (17.1%), and neonates (3.9%). The most common disease-causing serogroups were W (40.2%), B (31.7%), and C (10.4%). Serogroup W was the most common serogroup in adolescents (17.2%), and serogroup B was the most common in the other age groups, including children aged 1-5 years (11.5%). The most common clinical presentations were meningitis (46.6%) and sepsis (36.8%).

CONCLUSIONS

IMD continues to pose a threat to the health of children and adolescents. While this review was limited to case reports and is not reflective of global epidemiology, adolescents represented the largest group with IMD. Additionally, nearly half of the patients who died were adolescents, emphasizing the importance of monitoring and vaccination in this age group. Different infecting serogroups were predominant in different age groups, highlighting the usefulness of multivalent vaccines to provide the broadest possible protection against IMD. Overall, this review provides useful insights into real-life clinical presentations, treatment paradigms, diagnoses, and clinical outcomes to help clinicians diagnose, treat, and, ultimately, protect patients from this devastating disease.

Case Presentation of a 23-Month-old Herpes Simplex Virus-infected Girl with Brain and Oesophageal Involvement

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is the most common identifiable cause of serious or life threatening sporadic, endemic encephalitis. Typical HSV encephalitis in patients outside neonatal age is caused by HSV-1. A 23-month-old girl was referred to our hospital with a three-day history of fever, listlessness, slurred speech, and suspicious oesophageal foreign body impaction. Laboratory evaluations showed white blood cell count of 10900 /mm3 with 65% neutrophils. Upper endoscopy revealed diffuse severe ulceration in middle to distal third of oesophagus and no foreign body was found in oesophagus or stomach. Parenteral acyclovir was prescribed for herpes encephalitis in addition to antibiotics for central nervous system infection. Chest X-ray and brain MRI was unremarkable. Lumbar puncture revealed normal protein and glucose with 10 white cell count. She developed a raising liver enzyme tests. Total and direct bilirubin was 1.2 mg/dc and 0.2 mg/dc respectively. Because of neurological symptoms, acyclovir was adopted for our patient from the beginning. The girl did not respond to medication and died after 28 days. Progression of her disease prior to referral appears to contribute to the administered treatment inefficacy. Severe rapid progression of disease prior to referral and potential resistance to acyclovir could cause treatment failure.