Bacterial Meningitis in Children: A French Prospective Study

Abstract

a total of 1084 children with bacterial meningitis were enrolled in a prospective French nationwide survey. The most frequent pathogens found in children older than 28 days were Neisseria meningitis (55.3%) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (33.4%). S. pneumoniae was the most frequent pathogen found among infants aged 2-12 months (49.5%), whereas N. meningitidis was the most frequent pathogen among children 112 months old (69.7%). Approximately one-half of S. pneumoniae isolates had diminished susceptibility to penicillin. The casefatality rates were 7.6% for children with N. meningitidis meningitis and 10.8% for children with S. pneumoniae infection. Bacterial meningitis (BM) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in childhood. Antibiotic treatment recommendations are based on epidemiological and susceptibility data. The epidemiology of BM has changed in recent years, mainly because of the widespread use of conjugate vaccines against type b Haemophilus influenzae (Hib) [1, 2]. There is currently an alarming worldwide increase in the incidence of penicillin resistance among Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates [3]. The Pediatric Infectious Diseases Group of the French Pediatrics Society has set up a nationwide active surveillance network