The first laboratory confirmed invasive meningococcal disease of serogroup C with abdominal clinical presentation in Slovakia, 2019.

Abstract

Acute abdominal clinical presentations as initial manifestation of meningococcal infection are uncommon and frequently provoked by hyperinvasive isolates of meningococci. 10% of patients infected by the meningococcal strain, that is on the rise in Europe, suffer from abdominal pain. We hereby report the first laboratory confirmed fatal case of an otherwise healthy adult male presented with acute abdominal pain during first 24-48 hours, masking Neisseria meningitidis (N. meningitidis) infection. In the National Reference Center for meningococci, in the blood of a man post-mortem, we identified N. meningitidis serogroup C using real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Subsequently, massivelly-parallel sequencing (MPS) was performed on isolated total DNA for pathogen confirmation and further investigation.