Genuine reduction in meningococcal deaths results from teamwork

Improvements in the outcome of children with meningococcal disease

Recent years have seen a marked reduction in the mortality of children with meningococcal disease in paediatric intensive care units (PICU); the reasons for this improvement are multifactorial. The mortality rates for critically ill children overall have improved and reasons for this are probably increased centralisation of PICU services and that fewer critically ill children are now looked after on adult units. Specific treatment pathways for sepsis have improved with the publication of clinical guidelines for children and initiatives such as the Surviving Sepsis Campaign. There is a continuing need to focus on the care delivered to children before reaching PICU and to minimise the morbidity suffered by survivors of this disease.

High mortality of invasive pneumococcal disease compared with meningococcal disease in critically ill children

OBJECTIVE

To ascertain outcome, patterns of disease, incidence of concurrent infection, superinfection and penicillin resistance in children requiring intensive care for Streptococcus pneumoniae infection and compare it to a similar disease pattern, namely Neisseria meningitidis b infection.

DESIGN AND SETTING

Prospective cohort study in a regional paediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

PATIENTS AND PARTICIPANTS

Children with invasive pneumococcal and meningococcal disease requiring intensive care.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS

The study included 22 children with invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), median age 14 months (interquartile range 3-52), median Paediatric Index of Mortality (PIM) 0.051 (0.028-0.066), median length of PICU stay 8.5 days (4-13). Four patients died, three (13.5%) attributable to IPD. Incidence of concurrent infection 27%. There were no superinfections. All S. pneumoniae were sensitive to cefotaxime; one isolate (3.7%) was resistant to penicillin. There were 186 children with meningococcal disease (MD), with a higher PIM (median 0.068, 0.033-0.108), older age (29 months, 10.7-77.9) and shorter length of PICU stay (median 3 days, 2-6). Eight (4.3%) children died from MD. Incidence of concurrent and superinfection was 18% and 6%, respectively in children with MD. All N. meningitidis cases were sensitive to cefotaxime and penicillin. The standardized mortality ratio was considerably higher with IPD (2.0) than with MD (0.52).

CONCLUSIONS

In invasive pneumococcal disease preventative measures including early recognition, immediate antibiotic therapy and vaccination need to be taken in the community, similar to the control of meningococcal disease. Invasive pneumococcal disease should command the same respect as meningococcal disease.