Figure 2From: Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance pattern of bacterial meningitis in EgyptPercentage of meningiococcal meningitis cases based on studies conducted over 39 years. Nine different studies were conducted on patients diagnosed with meningitis due to N. meningitids from 1965-2004. Between 1966-1989, meningococcal meningitis cases caused by serogroup A are only presented. In ES1965-1968conducted on 644 cases of ABM, it was reported that meningococcus was responsible for 56% of bacterial meningitis cases [5]. In ES1966-1968on 187 patients, N. meningitidis was responsible for 49% of 123 culture positive cases and again identified as the leading cause of bacterial meningitis [6]. The prospective study ES1966-1989 on 7,809 patients also reported that 54% of meningitis cases were caused by N. meningitidis [23]. A retrospective study ES1971-1975 done on 1,333 patients reported that 56% of the cases were due to N. meningitidis infection [3]. ES1971-1974, on 783 patients reported that 54.4% (426) of the meningitis cases were due to meningococcal infection [14]. ES1977-1978 on 1627 CSF specimen demonstrated that N. meningitidis was the second most common bacterial meningitis (25.4% of the 350 bacterial meningitis cases) [10]. In the ES1998-2000 on 2047 children less than 6 years, N. meningitidis was reported to be responsible for 13% of the 228 bacterial meningitis cases [4]. The ES2000 identified N. meningitidis as the second leading cause of bacterial meningitis in Egypt responsible for 30% of the 223 patients positive culture [1]. Prospective study ES2002-2003 on 310 children clinically diagnosed with meningitis detected N. meningitidis in 14.2% of the cases and documented it as the second leading cause [21]. ES1998-2004 placed N. meningitidis as the third cause of bacterial meningitis [2]. The asterisks represent epidemiological studies reporting an average during the entire period of the study.Back to article page