Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0242429 (sore throat)
 2,760 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

In August 1987, an outbreak of group A meningococcal meningitis occurred during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, resulting in an attack rate among American pilgrims of 640 per 100,000. To determine risk factors for carriage, throat cultures were taken from passengers arriving on four consecutive flights from Saudi Arabia to the United States. Pilgrims were more likely to be group A meningococcal carriers than were nonpilgrims (relative risk, 11.1; 95% confidence interval, 3.7 to 33.1). Smoking, crowding, and meningococcal vaccination were not significantly associated with group A carriage. Pilgrims complaining of recent fever or sore throat, however, were more likely to be group A carriers, consistent with previous reports linking carriage and disease to preceding viral infections. Serogrouping of invasive meningococcal isolates can be used to monitor for indigenous transmission of this unusual strain in the United States, and we recommend routine vaccination of pilgrims to prevent future outbreaks of meningococcal disease.
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PMID:Group A meningococcal carriage in travelers returning from Saudi Arabia. 318 35

The Neisseria species with which most otolaryngologists are familiar is N gonorrhoeae, which can cause acute pharyngitis or tonsillitis. Less well known is N meningitidis, responsible for potentially fatal meningococcal meningitis and meningococcemia. Although present in the carrier state in the pharynx of asymptomatic individuals, N meningitidis previously has not been associated with symptomatic pharyngeal or tonsillar disease. Its isolation from a patient with acute tonsillitis and failure to eliminate the symptoms and organism with penicillin led to use of rifampin. Disappearance of sore throat following use of this antibiotic and inability at completion of therapy to isolate the organism from a homogenate of excised tonsil would appear to implicate the organism as a cause of acute pharyngeal and tonsillar infection. It should be added to the list of organisms capable of producing acute tonsillitis, and rifampin should be considered a chemotherapeutic agent.
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PMID:Tonsillitis due to neisseria meningitidis. Its treatment with rifampin. 678 29

Meningococcal meningitis is a well established potential fatal infection characterized by fever, headache, petechial rash, and vomiting in the majority of cases. However, protean manifestations including abdominal pain, sore throat, diarrhea and cough, even though rare, should not be overlooked. Similarly, although disseminated infection could potentially involve various organ-targets, secondary immune related complications including joints or pericardium should be dealt with caution, since they remain unresponsive to appropriate antibiotic regimens. We hereby report the rare case of an otherwise healthy adult female, presenting with acute abdominal pain masking Neisseria meningitidis serotype B meningitis, later complicated with recurrent reactive pericarditis despite appropriate antibiotic treatment. There follows a review of current literature.
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PMID:Neisseria meningitidis presenting as acute abdomen and recurrent reactive pericarditis. 2763 Nov 24