ORPHA:55655
Pneumococcal meningitis
Publications
5,639
Trials
2
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
1,478
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
—
Readiness
2/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
A rare infectious disease of the nervous system caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae, which is commonly part of the bacterial flora colonizing the nasopharyngeal mucosa. The disease is clinically characterized by typical symptoms of acute leptomeningitis, like fever, headache, neck stiffness, vomiting, and clouding of consciousness. It is frequently fatal and, in surviving patients, often accompanied by long-term sequelae, especially focal neurological deficits, hearing loss, cognitive impairment, and .
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0006913
- MeSH:D008586
- UMLS:C0025295
- NCIT:C157958
Additional Mondo synonyms (2)
Streptococcus pneumoniae caused infectious meningitis · Streptococcus pneumoniae infectious meningitis
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
2/6 stages with a signal
An interventional trial matched this condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov — see trials below.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
5,639 matched papers (1,992 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialPresent
2 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.
No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
Not enriched in this build.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
5,639
5,639 papers — among the better-studied rare conditions, though still a fraction of common-disease literature (breast cancer: over 700,000). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.
5,639 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).
1,992 in the last 10 years · low confidence
Phrase hits: 5,631 · MeSH hits: 28
Who's working on it?
1,478
Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
People publishing on this condition (sampled Europe PMC records). Affiliation is the most recent found in that sample.
- 01Brouwer MC14 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam UMC, Location University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Papers in Europe PMC - 02van de Beek D13 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam UMC, Location University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Electronic address: d.vandebeek@amsterdamumc.nl.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Koning R7 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Neuroscience, 1100DD Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Zhang X6 papers · 2026
Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Bijlsma MW5 papers · 2026
Department of Paediatrics, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Hammerschmidt S5 papers · 2026
Department of Molecular Genetics and Infection Biology, Interfaculty Institute for Genetics and Functional Genomics, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Iovino F5 papers · 2026
Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Jaspers V5 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Neuroscience, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Klein M5 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology, LMU University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Bakker D4 papers · 2026
Department of Neurology, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
2
interventional trials for this specific condition
2 interventional trials matched this specific condition name; none in our sample are currently recruiting.
Data as of 27 July 2026
2 interventional trials — more than 73% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5114 of 7003; this disease is at the 82.4th percentile).
low confidence · 82.4th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
2 interventional trials matched after quoted-phrase search and title/condition post-filter.
No currently recruiting studies in the matched set. Open the same search on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Observational and natural-history studies
2 observational studies match this condition. These do not test a treatment and are not counted in the interventional-trial headline, but they are genuine research: natural-history work often defines the endpoints needed for a future rare-disease trial, and families may be able to enroll.
None of the matched observational studies is currently listed as recruiting.
Where to find support
We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Pneumococcal meningitis" OR "Streptococcus pneumoniae caused infectious meningitis" OR "Streptococcus pneumoniae infectious meningitis"
MeSH descriptor terms unioned into the query: Meningitis, Pneumococcal
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Pneumococcal meningitis" OR "Streptococcus pneumoniae caused infectious meningitis" OR "Streptococcus pneumoniae infectious meningitis" OR "Meningitis, Pneumococcal"
Interventional trials matched via: phrase (mesh = registered under a MeSH descriptor no name phrase would catch; recall-expansion = gene / selected parent terms used only for trials).
Study-type breakdown: 2 interventional · 2 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase, mesh; with hits: phrase, mesh
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
- No synonyms dropped by stoplist
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
- Publication count (5639) is extremely high with unknown/missing prevalence — treat as possible over-matching, not proven research intensity
Ingested 2026-07-27T00:58:11.116Z