BACTERIAL MENINGITIS

Abstract

Prior to the introduction of specific antibacterial therapy, bacterial meningitis was a disease with a universally fatal or disastrous outcome. The introduction of typespecific antiserum, and then of the antibacterial drugs, improved this situation dramatically. Improvements in the general medical care of acutely ill children, and the introduction of a series of more potent antibiotics against its bacterial causes helped to generate an attitude that bacterial meningitis was, or soon would be, a disease of the past. The experience of the past two decades belies this thesis. Today, interest in many facets of this disease has been renewed by many physicians concerned with the health of children: the epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment. This symposium attempts to summarize for the practitioner the highlights of current knowledge in this area, and to outline certain areas in which recent advances can be anticipated, or will be studied. Tuberculous meningitis will be omitted for the sake of brevity, as will the special problems of meningitis in the newborn infant. There has been a resurgence of interest in developing vaccines to prevent Hemophilus influenzae b, pneumococcal, and meningococcal Group A, B, and C meningitis. These organisms cause almost all the bacterial meningitis after the first two months of life. If, as now seems possible, vaccines against most or all of these organisms will soon become available, those children having the greatest risk must be defined to determine who, and at what age should have priority in receiving the vaccine(s). A. THE CURRENT MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM