86 research outputs found
Global Case Fatality of Bacterial Meningitis During an 80-Year Period: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
IMPORTANCE
The impact of vaccination, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatory treatment on pathogen distribution and outcome of bacterial meningitis over the past century is uncertain.
OBJECTIVE
To describe worldwide pathogen distribution and case fatality ratios of community-acquired bacterial meningitis.
DATA SOURCES
Google Scholar and MEDLINE were searched in January 2022 using the search terms bacterial meningitis and mortality.
STUDY SELECTION
Included studies reported at least 10 patients with bacterial meningitis and survival status. Studies that selected participants by a specific risk factor, had a mean observation period before 1940, or had more than 10% of patients with health care-associated meningitis, tuberculous meningitis, or missing outcome were excluded.
DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS
Data were extracted by 1 author and verified by a second author. The study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Random-effects models stratified by age (ie, neonates, children, adults), Human Development Index (ie, low-income or high-income countries), and decade and meta-regression using the study period's year as an estimator variable were used.
MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURE
Case fatality ratios of bacterial meningitis.
RESULTS
This review included 371 studies performed in 108 countries from January 1, 1935, to December 31, 2019, describing 157 656 episodes. Of the 33 295 episodes for which the patients' sex was reported, 13 452 (40%) occurred in females. Causative pathogens were reported in 104 598 episodes with Neisseria meningitidis in 26 344 (25%) episodes, Streptococcus pneumoniae in 26 035 (25%) episodes, Haemophilus influenzae in 22 722 (22%), other bacteria in 19 161 (18%) episodes, and unidentified pathogen in 10 336 (10%) episodes. The overall case fatality ratio was 18% (95% CI, 16%-19%), decreasing from 32% (95% CI, 24%-40%) before 1961 to 15% (95% CI, 12%-19%) after 2010. It was highest in meningitis caused by Listeria monocytogenes at 27% (95% CI, 24%-31%) and pneumococci at 24% (95% CI, 22%-26%), compared with meningitis caused by meningococci at 9% (95% CI, 8%-10%) or H influenzae at 11% (95% CI, 10%-13%). Meta-regression showed decreasing case fatality ratios overall and stratified by S pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, or Streptococcus agalactiae (P < .001).
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
In this meta-analysis with meta-regression, declining case fatality ratios of community-acquired bacterial meningitis throughout the last century were observed, but a high burden of disease remained
Bacterial meningitis: epidemiology, herd protection, clinical characteristics, and risk assessment
This thesis studied the epidemiology of community-acquired bacterial meningitis after the nationwide implementation of paediatric conjugate vaccines, as well as the long-term epidemiology of invasive meningococcal disease and neonatal group B streptococcal disease in the Netherlands. Furthermore, clinical features of adult community-acquired bacterial meningitis after the introduction of adjunctive dexamethasone therapy and routine paediatric conjugate vaccines were investigated in a prospective nationwide cohort. Predictors of severe illness were found, both in adults with bacterial meningitis as well as in patients presenting with cerebrospinal pleocytosis and a negative cerebrospinal fluid gram stain. A risk score was developed that identifies adults with cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis and a negative cerebrospinal fluid Gram stain at low risk of an urgent treatable cause, and an external validation study of nine risk scores that predict adverse clinical outcome in bacterial meningitis was performed. Risk scores were identified through a systematic review of the literature. We found that bacterial meningitis is still a formidable disease with high mortality and morbidity, but progress has been made over the last decades. Outcome has been improved substantially by the introduction of adjunctive dexamethasone. Conjugate paediatric vaccines have greatly reduced the incidence of meningococcal, pneumococcal and H. influenzae type b meningitis. These vaccines have been unexpectedly effective against colonization and transmission, thereby making it possible to protect infants, immunocompromised patients, and the elderly by vaccinating healthy carriers. High quality and long-term surveillance studies will remain essential for vaccine development, implementation and evaluation
Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on clinical characteristics and outcomes of adult pneumococcal meningitis patients - a Dutch prospective nationwide cohort study.
PURPOSE
To investigate clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with pneumococcal meningitis during the COVID-19 pandemic.
METHODS
In a Dutch prospective cohort, risk factors and clinical characteristics of pneumococcal meningitis episodes occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic (starting March 2020) were compared with those from baseline and the time afterwards. Outcomes were compared with an age-adjusted logistic regression model.
RESULTS
We included 1,699 patients in 2006-2020, 50 patients in 2020-2021, and 182 patients in 2021-2023. After March 2020 relatively more alcoholism was reported (2006-2020, 6.1%; 2020-2021, 18%; 2021-2023, 9.7%; P = 0.002) and otitis-sinusitis was less frequently reported (2006-2020, 45%; 2020-2021, 22%; 2021-2023, 47%; P = 0.006). Other parameters, i.e. age, sex, symptom duration or initial C-reactive protein level, remained unaffected. Compared to baseline, lumbar punctures were more frequently delayed (on admission day, 2006-2020, 89%; 2020-2021, 74%; 2021-2022, 86%; P = 0.002) and outcomes were worse ('good recovery', 2020-2021, OR 0.5, 95% CI 0.3-0.8).
CONCLUSION
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we observed worse outcomes in patients with pneumococcal meningitis. This may be explained by differing adherence to restrictions according to risk groups or by reduced health care quality
Response to Dr. Francesca Miselli et al. correspondence “early-onset meningitis with delayed presentation: Is there a role for prevention?”
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on incidence and serotype distribution of pneumococcal meningitis - A prospective, nationwide cohort study from the Netherlands.
Prognostic risk score for pleocytosis with a negative gram stain: valid but of limited utility in bacterial meningitis patients
Incidence of invasive group B streptococcal disease and pathogen genotype distribution in newborn babies in the Netherlands over 25 years: a nationwide surveillance study
Group B streptococcus is the most common cause of neonatal infections. We studied the clinical and molecular epidemiology of invasive group B streptococcus infection in children younger than 3 months in the Netherlands over 25 years. We assessed the effect of the Dutch guidelines, introduced in 1999, for prevention of group B streptococcus, consisting of intravenous antibiotic prophylaxis during labour in cases of premature labour, prolonged rupture of membranes, or fever during delivery. We did this nationwide surveillance study with data from 1987 to 2011, from the Netherlands Reference Laboratory for Bacterial Meningitis. We included data for patients aged 3 months or younger with positive blood culture or cerebrospinal fluid culture for group B streptococcus and Escherichia coli infection. Early onset was defined as less than 7 days after birth and late onset was defined as 7 or more days after birth. We did multilocus sequence typing of a random subset of group B streptococcus samples to assess changes in sequence type (Mann-Kendall trend test) and the distribution of clonal complexes (χ(2) and Fisher exact test) before the introduction of prevention guidelines (1987-99) and afterwards (2000-11). We compared incidences and the distribution of clonal complexes before and after the introduction of guidelines. Most cases of group B streptococcus had early onset (696/1075; 65%). The incidence of invasive group B streptococcus infection increased from 0·20 per 1000 livebirths in 1987, to 0·32 per 1000 livebirths in 2011 (p <0·0001). The incidence of early-onset disease increased from 0·11 per 1000 livebirths to 0·19 per 1000 livebirths (p <0·0001). The incidence of invasive Escherichia coli infection was 0·05 in 1987, and 0·16 in 2011 (p=0·17). Early-onset group B streptococcus infection caused by isolates belonging to clonal complex 17 was more common in the post-implementation period than in the pre-implementation period (p=0·002). The introduction of prevention guidelines for invasive group B streptococcus disease in 1999 did not reduce the incidence of disease in neonates. The guidelines should be reassessed and alternative approaches to prevent infant invasive group B streptococcus disease should be sought. National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, the European Union's seventh framework programme, Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development, Academic Medical Center, and the European Research Counci
Epidemiology of invasive meningococcal disease in the Netherlands, 1960-2012: an analysis of national surveillance data
Epidemiological data for invasive meningococcal disease is essential for public health policy and vaccine development. We analysed national surveillance data from the Netherlands for PorA coverage of two PorA-based meningococcal serogroup B vaccines to describe the epidemiology of invasive meningococcal disease. We examined national surveillance data from the Netherlands Reference Laboratory of Bacterial Meningitis (NRLBM) for cases of culture-positive invasive meningococcal disease from Jan 1, 1960, to Jan 1, 2013. We included cases with a meningococcal isolate cultured from cerebrospinal fluid, blood, skin biopsy, or all, and cases with a positive cerebrospinal fluid latex agglutination test, counter current electrophoresis test, or positive cerebrospinal fluid PCR for Neisseria meningitidis. To test for completeness of case ascertainment, we compared data of the NRLBM with those of the Dutch National institute for public health and the environment (RIVM) to which notification was compulsory. We did serogrouping by ouchterlony gel diffusion. We tested susceptibility of meningococcal strains by agar dilution and E test. We tested differences between proportions with the Pearson χ(2) test or Fisher's exact test, and differences in frequencies between time periods with the Mann-Whitney U test. We defined penicillin resistance as MIC of 1·0 μg/mL or higher. Annual incidence rates of invasive meningococcal disease per 100 000 population increased from 0·5 in 1960, to 4·5 in 2001, and subsequently decreased to 0·6 in 2012. Median age increased from 1·8 years in 1960, to 6·1 years in 2012 for all serogroups. The proportion of blood culture positive cases increased from 4% in 1960, to 60% in 2012 (p <0·0001). Serogroup B was the most common serogroup over time, 64% of isolates were from ST-41/44 complex. We established PorA finetype of 4133 isolates, 19 of 252 variable regions covered 99% of sequenced serogroup B cases. Coverage of the 4CMenB PorA component was 4% in 1960-65, and 36% in 2006-12. In response to a serogroup C epidemic (1999-2001), serogroup C conjugate vaccine was introduced, which reduced serogroup C disease by 95%. Since 2003, serogroup Y disease emerged and serogroup A disease disappeared. We identified evidence of capsular switching, but not of serogroup replacement. The rate of reduced penicillin susceptibility increased to 37% from 1993 to 2012, but penicillin resistance was not recorded. Incidence of invasive meningococcal disease has decreased, but decreasing rates of penicillin susceptibility and the possible resurgence of this devastating disease remain a threat to public health. Our long-term serosubtyping and porA sequencing data is valuable for the assessment of vaccine coverage and future serogroup B vaccine development. National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, the European Union's seventh Framework programme, Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development, Academic Medical Center, and the European Research Counci
Listeria monocytogenes meningitis in the Netherlands, 1985-2014: A nationwide surveillance study
Objectives: Listeria monocytogenes can cause sepsis and meningitis. We report national surveillance data on L. monocytogenes meningitis in the Netherlands, describing incidence changes, genetic epidemiology and fatality rate. Methods: We analyzed data from the Netherlands Reference Laboratory of Bacterial Meningitis for cases of L. monocytogenes meningitis. Strains were assessed by serotyping and bacterial population structure by multi-locus sequence typing. Results: A total of 375 cases of Listeria meningitis were identified between 1985 and 2014. Peak incidence rates were observed in neonates (0.61 per 100,000 live births) and older adults (peak at 87 year; 0.53 cases per 100,000 population of the same age). Neonatal listerial meningitis decreased 17-fold from 1.95 per 100,000 live births between 1985 and 1989, to 0.11 per 100,000 live births between 2010 and 2014. Overall case fatality rate was 31%, in a multivariate analysis older age and concomitant bacteremia were associated with mortality (both p <0.01). Clonal complexes (CC) CC1, CC2 and CC3 decreased over time from respectively 32% to 12%, 33% to 9% and 10% to 2% (all p <0.001), while CC6 increased from 2% to 26% (p <0.001). Conclusions: The incidence of neonatal listerial meningitis has declined over the past 25 years. The genotype CC6 has become the predominant genotype in listerial meningitis in the Netherlands. Mortality of listeria meningitis has remained high. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The British Infection Associatio
Community-acquired bacterial meningitis
Bacterial meningitis is a medical emergency and is associated with a high disease burden. We reviewed recent progress in the management of patients with community-acquired bacterial meningitis. The worldwide burden of disease of bacterial meningitis remains high, despite the decreasing incidence following introduction of routine vaccination campaigns. Delay in diagnosis and treatment remain major concerns in the management of acute bacterial meningitis. European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases guidelines strive for a door-to-antibiotic-time less than 1 h. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has emerged as an important diagnostic tool to identify the causative organism. Point-of-care tests using fast multiplex PCR have been developed, but additional value has not been proven. Although anecdotal observations advocate pressure-based management, a randomized controlled trial will need to be performed first to determine efficacy and safety of such an aggressive treatment approach. Adjunctive dexamethasone remains the only adjunctive therapy with proven efficacy. The incidence of bacterial meningitis has been decreasing after the implementation of effective vaccines. Treatment should be administered as soon as possible and time to treatment should not exceed 1
- …
