meningococcal meningitis /mining′gōkok′əl/ , bacterial meningitis caused by infection with Neisseria meningitidis, an acute infectious disease with seropurulent meningeal inflammation. It usually appears in epidemics, and symptoms are those of acute cerebral and spinal meningitis, usually with an eruption of cutaneous erythematous, herpetic, or hemorrhagic spots. The fulminating or malignant form accompanied with bleeding into the adrenal glands is known as Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome. Also called cerebrospinal fever, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis. See also Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome.
