Meningococcal Disease in Day-Care Centers

Abstract

Household contacts exposed to patients with meningococcal disease are at demonstrably higher risk of that disease than the general population.1,2 Less intimate and less prolonged contact such as that involving hospital personnel3 or school classmates4 is not clearly associated with increased risk. This may well be due to the fact that older children and adults commonly have protective antibodies.5 Preschoolers, on the other hand, are more often susceptible as shown by their higher age-specific primary6 and secondary7 attack rates. When a child who attends a day-care center nursery develops meningococcal disease the presumed exposure of numerous susceptibles is a theoretically dangerous situation.