Context

Invasive meningococcal disease is one of the leading infective causes of mortality and morbidity in children and young adults in the UK[4].

Children with meningococcal disease can present classically, or with a variety of non-specific symptoms, or with no symptoms at all. As such, a high clinical suspicion is required when assessing the unwell child in the ED[4,35].

It is important to note that meningitis is more commonly caused by a virus, such as enterovirus or paramyxovirus, and can also be caused by other organisms such as parasites and fungus. This session will however focus on bacterial meningitis and meningococcal disease[4,35].