Abstract
The study describes an 18-month surveillance of the epidemiological, clinical and microbiological features of childhood acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) seven months after the end of a major epidemic of Neisseria meningitidis (MC) in Khartoum. A total of 125 children, aged one month to 14 years, who were admitted with a provisional diagnosis of meningitis/meningoencephalitis to the Children's Emergency Hospital (CEH) in Khartoum, Sudan, were prospectively enrolled in the study. Bacterial meningitis was diagnosed by direct microscopy (DM), culture or a recently introduced ELISA assay (ElA-test) in 56 children. Haemophilus influenzae (HI) and MC were the commonest causative bacteria (each accounting for 38%) and were followed by Streptococcus pneumoniae (PNC, 23%). There was a relative decrease in the proportion of HI which was found to be the leading causative bacteria in a previous study done in the same hospital during endemic situations. This was accounted for by a relative excess of MC during the post-epidemic period. Molecular analysis of two MC strains revealed that clone III-1 of serogroup A (that caused an intercontinental wave of MC disease between 1983 and 1990) was still prevalent. The case fatality rate was 28.6% which is higher than that reported in Sudan (18.6%) during endemic situations; but comparable to the mortality in other African countries. Of the prognostic factors on admission, low systolic blood pressure (<70 mmHg), hyperpyrexia (temperature >40 degree C) and light to deep coma correlated significantly with a fatal outcome.