[Bilateral meningococcal pneumonia in a young Japanese woman]

A 22-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital with complaints of fever, loss of appetite, coughing, sputum production, and right-sided chest pain. The chest X-ray film and computed tomogram showed infiltrates in both lower lung fields. Meningococcal pneumonia was diagnosed when a sputum culture was found to be positive for Neisseria meningitidis. Infection with this organism is uncommon in Japan. The patient had never gone abroad, and the route of infection was unknown. N. meningitidis is a rare cause of respiratory infections. When this organism does cause respiratory disease, it is usually acute bronchitis rather than meningococcal pneumonia. The patient in this case was not immunodeficient. She was also not deficient in a terminal lytic component sequence (deficiency in that sequence promotes meningococcal infection). The patient was emaciated and malnourished, which was thought to have made her more susceptible to infection. Orally administered DU-6859a, one of a new generation of quinolones, was very effective and had no side effects.