Abstract
An epidemiological study of children with purulent meningitis admitted from 1975 to 1978 to Hospital de Niños, Buenos Aires, is presented. There were 1314 patients in all, with the maximum in 1976: 512 cases. The most frequent germs were Meningococcus, 521 cases (39.6%), Haemophylus influenzae, 118 (9.0%), and Neumococcus, 64 (4.8%). Other germs were isolated in 44 patients (3.3%) and the etiology wasn't found in 567. The proportion of meningococcal meningitis was greater in 1976 (48.8%) than in other years; in 1978, the figures of H. influenzae (27.7%) and Neumococcus (15%) increased. All the cases and specially the meningococcal meningitis were predominant in winter and early spring. There were 151 deaths (11.6% cases). Lethality was greater in the infected with Neumococcus (27,0%) and Meningococcus (14.7%). The proportion of fatalities was greater in children below 1 year,and greater in boys than girls. Age was not related with death in children infected with Neumococcus and Meningococcus. Lethality was greater in children living further away from the hospital.
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Manterola, A., Angélica, F. 31 EPIDEMIOLOGY OF PURULENT MENINGITIS. Pediatr Res 15, 188 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198102000-00088
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198102000-00088
