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Symptoms of pneumococcal infection
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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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 carrier;
- localized forms:
- rhinitis,
- acute otitis media,
- acute sinusitis;
- generalized forms:
- acute pneumonia (croupous, focal),
- pneumocemia (septicemia),
- Meningitis - primary, secondary (including late posttraumatic),
- endocarditis.
Other (rare) forms are possible: peritonitis, arthritis.
Localized forms of the disease do not have any symptoms of pneumococcal infection and are diagnosed by microbiological methods. Pneumococcemia is more common in children under 3 years of age and is characterized by hyperthermia, often unpronounced hemorrhagic rash and the development of focal lesions (endocarditis, meningitis). In immunologically compromised patients, a lightning-fast course of the disease is possible with the development of multi-organ failure.
Pneumococcal meningitis takes the 2-3rd place in frequency among bacterial purulent meningitis. Most often observed in children under one year and persons over 50 years. It can develop primarily (without the presence of purulent-inflammatory foci) and again against the background of otitis, sinusitis, pneumonia. Less late posttraumatic forms of meningitis are observed in persons with fractures of the base of the skull, pyramids of the temporal bone; after surgery for an adenoma of the pituitary gland, a frontitis, in which the fistula of the subarachnoid space is formed, nasal liquorrhea or otorrh is often observed. Symptoms of pneumococcal infection can be typical (acute onset, hyperthermia, meningeal symptoms on day 1-2 of the disease) and atypical, when a mild fever is observed in the first days, and on the 3-4th day there is a sharp headache, vomiting, meningeal symptoms, rapidly growing disorders of consciousness, convulsions. Late posttraumatic meningitis develops rapidly, characterized by early loss of consciousness, a pronounced meningeal syndrome. In general, pneumococcal meningitis is characterized by severe course, deep disorders of consciousness, brainstem dislocation syndrome, severe focal symptomatology, high mortality (15-25%) even with antibiotic therapy. In the cerebrospinal fluid there is a moderate neutrophilic pleocytosis with a large amount of protein, a prolonged and persistent decrease in glucose concentration and an increase in the level of lactate.
The highest lethality in pneumococcal meningitis (edema of the brain with dislocation), sepsis (shock, multiple organ failure), pneumonia (acute respiratory failure, shock, extrapulmonary complications), endocarditis (thromboembolism, acute heart failure). With otitis and sinusitis, a fatal outcome is possible with the development of intracranial complications (meningitis, brain abscess).
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