Sensitive to the external environment and to drying out, and capable of living both in pairs and singly, meningococcus B is a Gram-negative, aerobic, immobile, asporogenic bacterium, positive for the cytochrome-oxidase enzyme and of variable size between 0.6 and 1 micron.
Meningococcus B is a transmissible bacterium: its transmission can occur through the droplets of respiratory secretion or the oral-pharyngeal tract produced and emitted by an infected subject or through contact with contaminated objects.
Both when it causes meningitis and when it causes sepsis, meningococcus B is responsible for a "serious infection, which, in the absence of timely and adequate therapy, can lead to death.
In Italy, there is the possibility of preventing meningococcal B infections by using the special anti-meningococcal B vaccine.
