[Chronic meningococcemia--a rare, but characteristic disease picture].

Chronic meningococcaemia is a rare clinical manifestation of invasive infection by Neisseria meningitidis. The clinical signs and symptoms are recurrent fever, skin rash, arthralgias and headache. This constellation is rather typical and may enable the clinician to establish the diagnosis. The clinical diagnosis is confirmed by the growth of Neisseria meningitidis in the blood culture. In addition, the clinical course under antibiotic treatment leads to a dramatic improvement within 24-48 hours. Positive cultures may be obtained by needle aspiration or skin biopsy. There are a few reports on patients with deficiency of late complement components or immunoglobulin deficiency. We report on two patients with the typical findings of chronic meningococcaemia.