Surveillance of Bacterial Meningitis in the Country of Georgia, 2006–2010

Abstract

Bacterial meningitis remains important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, particularly in developing countries. This study analyzed the data from sentinel surveillance for bacterial meningitis among children <5 years of age hospitalized in largest children's hospital in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia and adult patients hospitalized in infectious diseases hospital during 2006-2010 with suspected bacterial meningitis. The surveillance is conducted by National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDCPH). The number of patients with identified organism was 127 (19 %). In the subsample of patients with laboratory confirmed bacterial meningitis Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most frequently isolated organism (67 cases, 52.8 %), followed by. influenza (17 cases, 13.4 %) and Neisseria meningitidis (16 cases, 12.6 %). The number of patients with suspected TB meningitis was 27 (21.3 %). The overall case fatality rate in the subgroup of patients with identified organism was 12.3 %. The highest mortality was observed among TB patients (22.2 %) with 14.3 % mortality for N. meningitidis and 10.3 % for S. pneumoniae. No lethal outcome was observed among patients with Haemophilus influenzae.

Surveillance of Bacterial Meningitis in the Italian Hospital of Desio: A Twenty-Year Retrospective Study

“…Reviewing the literature, our data concerning the most frequent etiological agents causing meningitis agreed with results obtained by Giorgi Rossi and coauthors in their monitoring of bacterial meningitis in Lazio, Italy [4], and, similarly, with results reported in different surveillance studies worldwide, such as African regions, Georgia, India, and England [3,[5][6][7]10].…”

“…Bacterial meningitis presents a high fatality rate (up to 20%) that can affect young people, and among infectious agents, such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites, the most common microorganisms involved are Haemophilus influenzae type b, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Neisseria meningitidis. In fact, there are three available and effective vaccines against these bacteria, and their epidemiological proportions vary among geographic regions, depending on the vaccination schedule [1,[3][4][5][6]. Surveillance systems are essential to monitor the distribution of cases, describe the circulating causative organisms, estimate the number of cases that can be prevented, and analyze vaccination failures [1,3,7,8].…”

Etiologic Agents of Central Nervous System Infections among Febrile Hospitalized Patients in the Country of Georgia

“…In the country of Georgia, limited research data suggest that three bacterial pathogens (HiB, S. pneumoniae, and N. meningitidis ) are the main causes of BM [13]. Old data from other former Soviet Republics indicate that before the introduction of the HiB vaccine, 50% of childhood BM in Russia was due to HiB [14].…”

Global Case Fatality of Bacterial Meningitis During an 80-Year Period

“…N meningitidis was among the most frequent pathogens in children and adults (250 studies; 274 study periods; 123 830 episodes) (eTable 16 and eFigure 27 in Supplement 1). This sample was dominated by a Nigerian study describing an outbreak in 2009 with more than 50 000 patients . The overall CFR was 8.8% (95% CI, 8.0% to 9.7%) (eFigure 28 in Supplement 1); CFR was 11% (95% CI, 8% to 16%) before 1961 and 7.2% (95% CI, 5.8.% to 8.7%) i...…”

“…H influenzae was among the most frequent pathogens in children (226 of 630 studies [36%]; 249 of 733 study periods [34%]; 49 539 of 314 454 episodes [16%]) (eTable 18 and eFigure 32 in Supplement 1). The overall CFR was 11% (95% CI, 10% to 13%) (eFigure 33 in Supplement 1); CFR was 13% (95% CI, 10% to 18%) before 1961 and 10% (95% CI, 7% to 16%) after 2010. CFR was higher in low-income countries (23%; 95% CI, 19% to 29%) compared with high-income countries (7%; 95% CI, 5% to 9%) (eTable 19 in Supplement 1) and did not decrease substantially during the period (0.7% per year; 95% CI, −0.3% to 1.7% per year; P = .17) (eFigures 34 to 36 in Supplement 1).…”