Symptoms:

There may be few symptoms at first. Some may include:

• Anxiety
• Fever
• Irritability
• Spotty red or purple rash (petechiae)

Additional symptoms may include:

• Headache
• Muscle and joint pain
• Nausea
• Vomiting

Later symptoms may include:

• Changing level of consciousness
• Ill appearance
• Large areas of bleeding under the skin (purpura)
• Shock

Signs and tests:

Blood tests will be done to rule out other infections and help confirm meningococcemia. Such tests may include:

• Blood culture
• Complete blood count with differential
• Clotting studies (PT, PTT)

Other tests that may be done include:

• Lumbar puncture to obtain spinal fluid sample for CSF culture
• Skin biopsy and gram stain
• Urinalysis