Mum and Dad showed me an episode of "Catalyst" from a while back, on meningococcal disease, this evening. Scary, scary stuff. (The septicaemia version, in particular.)
From what I saw (and have read tonight), once a person starts showing the symptoms (nausea, aching joints, fever, bruises or rashes), there's very little time before the person's life is seriously at risk. The bacteria itself moves into the bloodstream (hence septicaemia) and, through a chain of events, causes massive clotting. The end result is that the blood vessels rupture all over the body, and your organs and body parts start to die. Consequently, many people that survive the disease lose fingers, toes or limbs – and unfortunately, children and teenagers are the most affected.
This stuff really frightens me. Although there are vaccines, they don't cover what seems to be the worst variant of the disease – B. There's no real protection for it either. Thankfully, once diagnosed, simple drugs (i.e. penicillin) will kill off the bacteria.
On a side note, I think if I were to consider a career-change (career? what career? course change, maybe), I'd go into microbiology or another related field. To be able to develop these vaccines and save lines would be… very rewarding.
There's a little bit more information here
