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ORPHA:55655

Pneumococcal meningitis

low confidenceDisorder

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 .

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.

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.

  1. Gene identifiedNot found

    No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build

  2. LiteraturePresent

    5,639 matched papers (1,992 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedNot found

    No HPO disease–phenotype associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs

  4. Animal modelNot found

    No Alliance genotype “model of” associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs

  5. Orphan designationNot found

    No FDA or EMA orphan-drug designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name Source

  6. 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)

None returned for this Mondo ID. That often means “not linked under this ID,” not “no clinical features.”

Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)

None returned for this Mondo ID. Empty here is not proof that no model organism work exists under another name or gene.

Monarch fetch 2026-07-29

Therapies

Designations, candidates, and chemicals

FDA OOPD and EMA orphan designations, Open Targets clinical candidates, and CTD chemical associations via MyDisease.info. These never change the interventional-trial headline.

Orphan designation (FDA · EMA)

No designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name on the FDA OOPD mirror or EMA orphan register. Absence here is not proof that none exists under another wording.

Open Targets candidates

2

Drugs / clinical candidates · MONDO_0006913

CTD chemicals (MyDisease.info)

12 associated chemicals. Therapeutic evidence is listed first when present — not a treatment recommendation.

  • Cefotaxime · therapeutic
  • Cefpirome · therapeutic
  • Ceftriaxone · therapeutic
  • Chloramphenicol · therapeutic
  • Cilastatin, Imipenem Drug Combination · therapeutic
  • Dexamethasone · therapeutic
  • Fosfomycin · therapeutic
  • Penicillins · therapeutic
  • Rifampin · therapeutic
  • telavancin · therapeutic
  • Vancomycin · therapeutic
  • Clarithromycin · marker/mechanism

MyDisease.info · MONDO:0006913

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=3967) is 59.

5,639 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 59 (publications denominator n=3967).

1,992 in the last 10 years · low confidence

Phrase hits: 5,631 · MeSH hits: 28

Open Europe PMC search

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.

  1. 01
    Brouwer MC14 papers · 2026

    Department of Neurology, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam UMC, Location University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    van 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
  3. 03
    Koning R7 papers · 2026

    Department of Neurology, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Neuroscience, 1100DD Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Zhang X6 papers · 2026

    Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Bijlsma 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
  6. 06
    Hammerschmidt 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
  7. 07
    Iovino F5 papers · 2026

    Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Jaspers V5 papers · 2026

    Department of Neurology, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Neuroscience, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Klein M5 papers · 2026

    Department of Neurology, LMU University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Bakker 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 11 September 2026

2 interventional trials — more than 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5501 of 7126; this disease is at the 84.5th percentile).

low confidence · 84.5th 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.

Open the complete matched search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Other registries (secondary)

Broader net from EU CTIS, ISRCTN, and ICTRP when available — deduped against ClinicalTrials.gov IDs already counted above. Dual-model LLM relevance gates what we keep. These rows are not added to the interventional headline.

raw 34 · after dedupe 34 · already on CT.gov 0 · kept 0 · parent 0 · uncertain 34 · dropped 0 · fetched 2026-07-29

Source notes: ictrp: Error: ICTRP public search unavailable (WHO portal is SPA-only; SOAP needs partnership). Tried: https://apps.who.int/tri

No secondary-registry studies passed dual-model relevance for this condition name (after dedupe).

Uncertain / not reviewed (34)

Where to find support

Condition-specific patient organisations, when Orphanet lists them, are on the disease’s Orphanet page. We also link umbrella groups that support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families.

Orphanet entry for Pneumococcal meningitis — check Associations / patient organisations on that page.

India — NPRD

Last verified 2026-07-26

This 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"

Run this search on Europe PMC

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