MENINGOCOCCEMIA: A DESCRIPTION OF THE CLINICAL PICTURE AND A COMPARISON OF THE EFFICACY OF SULFADIAZINE AND PENICILLIN IN THE TREATMENT OF THIRTY CASES

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Abstract
At one army hospital, 15 patients with proved meningococcemia without meningitis were seen within a 16-month period, and 18 patients within another 4-month period. During the same periods there were seen 15 and 14 cases unconfirmed bacteriologically. Analysis of the cases from the standpoint of symptoms and laboratory findings showed no discernible difference between the confirmed and the unconfirmed cases excepting only that the blood culture was positive in the former. A rash is a sine qua non for clinical diagnosis. Every patient had fever and a rash (one exception), most of them had an upper respiratory infection, chills, headache and nausea; half of them had joint pains. The rash was typically maculopapular rather than hemor-rhagic. One group was treated with sulfadiazine and another with penicillin. The results were almost exactly identical with the two groups except that the temp. fell to normal within 24 hrs., on the average, in the sulfadiazine treated cases and within 12 hrs. in the penicillin group. Every patient recovered and meningitis did not occur in any patient. It was concluded that neither drug has any marked therapeutic superiority over the other.