Haemophilus influenzae type B meningitis: a contagious disease of children.

Glodé, Mary P.; Daum, Robert S.; Goldmann, Donald A.; Leclair, Jeanne M.; Smith, Alyssa E.

doi:10.1136/bmj.280.6218.899

Cited by 60 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…A history of case contact occurred only in the meningococcal group and the culture-negative group which, together with the greater fluctuation in annual incidence in the meningococcal group, is consistent with the reputation of the meningococcus for case to case spread. No secondary cases and no significant annual fluctuation was observed in the haemophilus group, although recent reports from America have documented case to case spread (Ward et al 1979;Glode et al 1980). It is, at present, our opinion that these sporadic secondary cases of haemophilus meningitis are insufficient justification for giving chemoprophylaxis to contacts of this disease (Davey & Cruickshank, 1979;Davey, Cruickshank & Geddes, 1980).…”

Section: Outcome -Pneumococcal Groupmentioning

confidence: 85%

Bacterial meningitis – ten years experience

Davey¹,

Cruikshank²,

McManus

et al. 1982

J. Hyg.

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SummaryBetween January 1968 and December 1977, 635 cases of acute bacterial meningitis were admitted to hospitals in the Birmingham Area Health Authority. The epidemiology of these cases was analysed and compared with the 270 cases which were admitted to the regional infectious diseases unit at East Birmingham Hospital (E.B.H.). In children and young adults the meningococcus was the commonest causative organism while over the age of 25 pneumococcal meningitis predominated. AlthoughHaemophilus influenzaewas the second commonest infecting organism it was a rare cause of meningitis in school children and adults, only four cases presenting in these age groups in the Birmingham Area.A detailed analysis was made of the symptoms, signs, laboratory investigations and clinical course of the 270 cases treated at E.B.H.The mortality in the patients with pneumococcal meningitis was 30%. In the meningococcal group it was 3·5% and in the haemophilus groups 7·7%.An analysis of the various treatment regimes employed in the 270 E.B.H. patients supports the view that a single antibiotic is sufficient for the therapy of most forms of bacterial meningitis. Intrathecal antibiotic administration is unnecessary in pyogenic meningitis caused by meningococci, pneumococci orH. influenzae.

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Section: Outcome -Pneumococcal Groupmentioning

confidence: 85%

Bacterial meningitis – ten years experience

Davey¹,

Cruikshank²,

McManus

et al. 1982

J. Hyg.

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“…It took a nation-wide survey in the USA (Ward et al, 1979) to establish that the likelihood of a case of haemophilus meningitis occurring in a household within 30 days of the occurrence of an index case was much higher (the authors' calculation was 585 times higher) than in the general population. Secondary spread in day-care centres was already well documented (for references see Ward et al, 1979), and the new attitude to the epidemiology of haemophilus meningitis was embodied by Glode et al (1980) in the title of their paper, in which they described it as "a contagious disease of children". OMP typing has confirmed that secondary cases of this kind are caused by the strains causing their respective index cases (Loeb and Smith, 1980;Barton, Granoff and Barenkamp, 1983;, and there is therefore no need to postulate any other factor to explain these case-associations.…”

Section: Capsular Type Bmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pathogenicity of Haemophilus influenzae

Turk

1984

Journal of Medical Microbiology

310

147

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Problems about the pathogenicity of an organism can be classified as: (1) clinical and epidemiological-what diseases does it cause or take part in, and when? (2) research (with prophylactic and therapeutic implications)-how does it do so? Category (1) answers for Haemophilus injuenzae began in 1892, with Pfeiffer's claim that it was the cause of influenza; but the true picture of the range of pathogenic activities of this species became clear in the period 1930-1960 answers have in general been more recent, and are still far from complete (as is the case with most pathogens); but a fascinating array of contributions has appeared in the past few years. What and when?To discuss the pathogenicity of H . injuenzae as though the species were in this respect a single entity would be to confuse things that differ widely. It has been clear for over 50 years (Pittman, 1931), but not known as widely as it should have been, that a minority of H. injluenzae strains have polysaccharide capsules, and that one of the six capsular types (type b) differs in pathogenicity from the rest of the species at least as markedly as do streptococci of Lancefield's group A from other P-haemolytic streptococci. The main facts about the distribution and pathogenicity of capsulated and non-capsulated strains of H. injluenzae are summarised in the table. The species has 00 non-human hosts. Capsular type bThe 2 4 % carriage rates for H. injluenzae type b listed in the table represent the findings of numerous surveys, each of which was a "snapshot" of the distribution of the organism in one community at one time. These give no information about the dynamics of carriage. Rates in the range 2 4 % would be found, for example, in a community of which each member carried the organism for about 2 months during a 5-year period. There is some evidence (e.g., Turk, 1963) that the duration of carriage of H. injluenzae type b by individual children is often of that order. Moreover, when Sell, Turner and Federspiel(l973) studied 55 children through their first 5 years of life, culturing nasopharyngeal swabs mostly at 3-month intervals, they isolated H.

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“…Although uncommon, secondary cases of disease due to Haemophilus inJEuenzae of capsular type b are well documented, and can occur within a patient's family or among close non-family contacts (Glode et al, 1980). Their secondary nature is recognisable because of the micro-organism's possession of the type b capsule.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A chemotyping scheme for clinical isolates of Haemophilus influenzae

Tebbutt

1984

Journal of Medical Microbiology

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SUMMARY. A total of 464 Haemophilus influenzae strains, most of them fresh clinical isolates, have been classified by chemotyping-a combination of auxotyping and biotyping. Seven auxotests and four other biochemical tests allowed recognition of 56 types. These were to a degree site-specific. H. inJIuenzae of capsular type b proved almost without exception to belong to one chemotype, and 24 of 33 strains assigned to this chemotype were capsulated. When surgical-ward isolates of H . injluenzae were typed, the results suggested that some cross-infection had occurred.

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Haemophilus influenzae type B meningitis: a contagious disease of children.

Cited by 60 publications

References 19 publications

Bacterial meningitis – ten years experience

Bacterial meningitis – ten years experience

The pathogenicity of Haemophilus influenzae

A chemotyping scheme for clinical isolates of Haemophilus influenzae

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