BURDEN OF BACTERIAL MENINGITIS: A RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW ON LABORATORY PARAMETERS AND FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH DEATH IN MENINGITIS, KELANTAN MALAYSIA

To describe the clinical characteristics and the risk factors associated with mortality in patients with meningitis. This is a retrospective review of patients diagnosed to have meningitis with positive culture of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimen. All cases aged 19 > years who were admitted to Hospital USM between January 2004 and December 2011 were included in the study. The CSF results database were obtained from the Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Hospital USM, Kelantan. A checklist was used to record the clinical characteristics. A total of 125 cases met the inclusion criteria. The age of patients ranged between newborn and 19 years old (Mean±SD, 74.5±80.6 months). The majority of them were males (65.6%). Fever was the most common presentation (73.6%) followed by poor oral intake (48.0%), seizure (36.0%) and headache (24.8%). The mortality rate was 31.2%. Coagulase negative staphylococcus was the most frequent pathogens isolated (21.6%), followed by Acinetobacter spp. (17.6%), Staphylococcus aureus (13.6%), Streptococcus spp. (11.2%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (6.4%). There were significant association of in-hospital death with age (p=0.020) and conscious level (p=0.001). Infectious meningitis is a big health concern, especially among children. We found that coagulase negative staphylococcus, Acinetobacter species, S. aureus, Streptococcus spp and K. pneumoniae were prevalent in our hospital. These microorganisms were hospital associated pathogens. The 31% mortality linked to hospital acquired meningitis specifies the need for focused physician attention especially among younger aged patients.