1. Voluntary reporting from microbiology laboratories may provide a more reliable, although still incomplete, source of surveillance data. Noah quotes figures from the CDSC that indicate that reports of haemophilus meningitis have doubled since the early 1970s and by 1984 had become marginally more common than meningococcus.in Scotland, averaged over all age groups.' The same trend was evident but less pronounced in England and Wales. Population defined studies are likely to be more sensitive in monitoring early trends in local disease
2. More recently the same changing profile of infection has been documented in some European countries. In Berlin the commonest cause of bacterial meningitis in patients admitted to the,1987
3. Epidemiology of bacterial meningitis: UK and USA;Noah, N.D.,1987
4. Acute purulent meningitis in infancy and childhood with special reference to late manifestations;Galloway, W.H.G.
5. Acute bacterial meningitis in childhood;Goldacre, M.J.;Lancet,1976