Meningococcal Information for Health Care Professionals

Information for health professionals about meningococcal disease (Neisseria meningitidis, Bacterial Meningitis) and reporting.

On this page:
Reporting
Vaccination
Resources

Reporting

Reporting Meningococcal Disease (Neisseria meningitidis)
Health care providers are required to report suspected or confirmed cases of Neisseria meningitidis to the Minnesota Department of Health immediately by phone (651-201-5414).

• Suspected:
  • Clinical purpura fulminans in the absence of a positive blood culture; or
  • Gram-negative diplococci, not yet identified, isolated from a normally sterile body site (e.g., blood, CSF, synovial fluid).
• Confirmed:
  • Detection of N. meningitidis-specific nucleic acid in a specimen obtained from a normally sterile body site using a validated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay; or
  • Isolation of N. meningitidis from a normally sterile body site or from purpuric lesions.

Vaccination

• CDC MMWR: Meningococcal Vaccination: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, United States, 2020
  Summary of recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and preventions ACIP for use of meningococcal vaccine in the United States.
• CDC MMWR: Use of the Pfizer Pentavalent Meningococcal Vaccine Among Persons Aged ≥10 Years: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices ― United States, 2023
  Information on the pentavalent meningococcal vaccine and what it protects against.

Resources

• AAP Red Book: Meningococcal Infections
  American Academy of Pediatrics 2021-2024 Report of the Committee on Infectious Disease.
• CDC: Chapter 14: Meningococcal Disease
  This Pink Book chapter discusses pathogenesis, clinical features, epidemiology, vaccination, and surveillance of meningococcal disease.
• CDC: Yellow Book: Meningococcal Disease
  Information from the CDC Yellow Book 2024 Travel-Associated Infections & Disease
• CDC: Clinical Overview of Meningococcal Disease
• CDC: Chapter 8: Meningococcal Disease
  This chapter from the Manual for the Surveillance of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases provides general guidance for vaccine-preventable disease surveillance