Occurrence of pneumococcal meningitis in Iraq

الملخص EN

This study focuses on the relative frequency of Streptococcus pneumaniae in children with culture-proven bacterial meningitis.

The epidemiology has been investigated with clinical and laboratory findings in The Central Public Health Laboratory, Iraq from April to September, 2010.

From (138) samples, (55) cases (39.85 %) were diagnosed by physician as bacterial meningitis, (23) cases (16.66 %) as viral menginitis, (18) cases (13.04 %) as different medical cases (e.g febrile convulsion, meningoencephalitis, epilepsy …etc) and (42) cases (30.43 %) as unidentified medical cases.

For bacterial meningitis S.

pneumaniae was isolated from (10) cases (18.18 %) only.

The median age for bacterial meningitis was (130.75) month and the predominance was in the age group (1-20) months which appear as (42) cases (76.36 %).

Fever was the frequent presenting symptoms in (49) cases (89.09 %), followed vomiting in (34) cases (61.81 %), then irritability and seizures in (29, 25) cases (52.72, 45.45) % respectively.

In bacterial meningitis, the mean for glucose and protein levels was (44 and 65) (mg / dl) respectively.