[Hereditary C5 deficiency and recurrent Neisseria meningitidis meningitis]. / Déficit héréditaire en C5 et méningite récidivante à Neisseria meningitidis.

Deficiencies of the terminal C fragments of the complement system are known to be associated with a remarkable increase in the frequency of Neisseria infections. The correlation is even closer between deficiency of C5 and recurrent N. meningitidis meningitis. The reasons for this bacterial specificity and the immunopathological mechanisms involved have not been clearly established. However, it is known that only adult subjects with homozygous deficiency are affected and that the deficiency is transmitted as an autosomal recessive trait unrelated to the HLA system.

[Septicemia due to Fusobacterium necrophorum. A case report]. / Septicémie à fusobacterium necrophorum. A propos d'un cas.

Septicemia due to the anaerobic gram-negative bacillus Fusobacterium necrophorum is exceptional. It may originate in tonsillitis or intestinal or gynecological infection. We report one case in a young man with head injury. Fusobacterium necrophorum is frequently associated with aerobic pathogens such as streptococcus or staphylococcus (more than fifty per cent of the cases). Metastatic localizations are numerous, often pleuro-pulmonary (infarction, abscess), hepatic (cytolysis) and meningeal (purulent meningitis, cerebral abscess), and in some instances articular (joint swelling) or embolic. Hypercoagulability is often associated. Prognosis is severe (45% mortality rate). Penicillin G seems to be the best antibiotic but erythromycin is effective, as well as imidazole which was very active in our case.