Medical expert of the article
New publications
Symptoms of pneumococcal infection
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
The incubation period of pneumococcal infection is unknown. Generalized (invasive) forms of infection in the presence of rhinitis develop in 1-3 days. Pneumococcal infection does not have a generally accepted classification. Symptoms of pneumococcal infection allow us to distinguish the following forms of the disease:
- healthy carriage;
- localized forms:
- rhinitis,
- acute otitis media,
- acute sinusitis;
- generalized forms:
- acute pneumonia (lobar, focal),
- pneumocemia (septicemia),
- meningitis - primary, secondary (including late post-traumatic),
- endocarditis.
Other (rare) forms are possible: peritonitis, arthritis.
Localized forms of the disease do not have any symptoms of pneumococcal infection and are diagnosed using microbiological methods. Pneumococcemia is more often observed in children under 3 years of age and is characterized by hyperthermia, often a mild hemorrhagic rash and the development of focal lesions (endocarditis, meningitis). In immunologically compromised patients, a fulminant course of the disease with the development of multiple organ failure is possible.
Pneumococcal meningitis is the 2nd-3rd most common type of bacterial purulent meningitis. It is most often observed in children under one year of age and people over 50 years of age. It can develop primarily (without purulent-inflammatory foci) and secondarily against the background of otitis, sinusitis, pneumonia. Less common are late post-traumatic forms of meningitis in people with fractures of the base of the skull, the pyramid of the temporal bone; after operations for pituitary adenoma, frontal sinusitis, in which a subarachnoid space fistula is formed, nasal liquorrhea or otorrhea is often observed. Symptoms of pneumococcal infection may be typical (acute onset, hyperthermia, meningeal symptoms on the 1st-2nd day of illness) and atypical, when moderate fever is observed in the first days, and on the 3rd-4th day there is a sharp headache, vomiting, meningeal symptoms, rapidly increasing disorders of consciousness, convulsions. Late posttraumatic meningitis develops rapidly, is characterized by early loss of consciousness, a pronounced meningeal syndrome. In general, pneumococcal meningitis is characterized by a severe course, profound disorders of consciousness, brainstem dislocation syndrome, gross focal symptoms, high mortality (15-25%) even with antibacterial therapy. In the cerebrospinal fluid - moderate neutrophilic pleocytosis with a large amount of protein, a long-term and persistent decrease in glucose concentration and an increase in lactate levels.
The highest mortality rate is observed in pneumococcal meningitis (cerebral edema with dislocation), sepsis (shock, multiple organ failure), pneumonia (acute respiratory failure, shock, extrapulmonary complications), endocarditis (thromboembolism, acute heart failure). In otitis and sinusitis, a fatal outcome is possible with the development of intracranial complications (meningitis, brain abscess).
[