What is septicaemia?
Septicaemia is blood poisoning caused by the same bacteria that can cause meningitis. Meningitis and Septicaemia can occur together or separately.
Septicaemia is the blood poisoning form of the same infection and can occur together with meningitis or separately. As bacteria enter the bloodstream (as opposed to the cerebrospinal fluid) they rapidly multiply and produce poisons which travel around the body causing damage to blood vessels and organs. The blood vessels can start to leak. This leads to a characteristic rash as well as a number of other symptoms that we’ll look at in a bit more detail later.
These are deadly diseases that strike without warning and can kill in hours.