Peer Reviewed
Emergency medicine

Meningitis or septicaemia in a backpacker?

Sascha Fulde, Gordian Fulde
Abstract
Negative blood test results for meningitis but positive for Staphylococcus aureus in a young patient with suspected meningitis and a recent joint injury led to a diagnosis of staphylococcal septicaemia with septic arthritis as the source of the infection.
Key Points

    As a GP working in your own practice and in the emergency department of the local hospital, you probably see more cases of life-threatening shock than most GPs. It is commonly acknowledged that the virulence of organisms and their resistance to antibiotics are increasing, but when a young person is brought into the emergency department in life-threatening shock, it is very distressing and challenging.

    Picture credit: © Eye of Science/SPL

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