Predictive signs and symptoms of bacterial meningitis isolates in Northern Ghana

Cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) is a public health burden in Ghana that causes up to 10% mortality in confirmed cases annually. About 20% of those who survive the infection suffer permanent sequelae. The study sought to understand the predictive signs and symptoms of bacterial meningitis implicated in its outcomes. Retrospective data from the Public Health Division, Ghana Health Service on bacterial meningitis from 2015 to 2019 was used for this study. A pre-tested data extraction form was used to collect patients’ information from case-based forms kept at the Disease Control Unit from 2015 to 2019. Data were transcribed from the case-based forms into a pre-designed Microsoft Excel template. The data was cleaned and imported into SPSS version 26 for analysis. Between 2015 and 2019, a total of 2446 suspected bacterial meningitis cases were included in the study. Out of these, 842 (34.4%) were confirmed. Among the confirmed cases, males constituted majority with 55.3% of the cases. Children below 14 years of age were most affected (51.4%). The pathogens commonly responsible for bacterial meningitis were Neisseria meningitidis (43.7%) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (53.0%) with their respective strains Nm W135 (36.7%), Nm X (5.1%), Spn St. 1 (26.2%), and Spn St. 12F/12A/12B/44/4 (5.3%) accounting for more than 70.0% of the confirmed cases. The presence of neck stiffness (AOR = 1.244; C.I 1.026–1.508), convulsion (AOR = 1.338; C.I 1.083–1.652), altered consciousness (AOR = 1.516; C.I 1.225–1.876), and abdominal pains (AOR = 1.404; C.I 1.011–1.949) or any of these signs and symptoms poses a higher risk for testing positive for bacterial meningitis adjusting for age. Patients presenting one and/or more of these signs and symptoms (neck stiffness, convulsion, altered consciousness, and abdominal pain) have a higher risk of testing positive for bacterial meningitis after statistically adjusting for age.