RT Book, Section
A1 Harper, Marvin B.
A2 Shah, Samir S.
SR Print(0)
ID 6903048
T1 Chapter 16. Meningitis
T2 Pediatric Practice: Infectious Disease
YR 2009
FD 2009
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 978-0-07-148924-9
LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=6903048
RD 2024/04/20
AB Meningitis  is  defined  as  an  inflammation  of  the  leptomeninges  of  any  cause.  Bacteria,  which  cause  meningitis  by  invading  and  replicating  in  the  subarachnoid  space,  are  associated  with  significant  morbidity  and  mortality.  Viral  infections  may  also  cause  meningitis,  most  commonly  enteroviruses,  but  few  children  with  viral  meningitis  suffer  any  long-term  sequelae.  Therefore,  the  focus  of  this  chapter  will  be  on  bacterial  meningitis.  Figure  16–1  displays  the  age  and  organism-specific  rates  of  bacterial  meningitis  in  the  United  States  prior  to  the  introduction  of  currently  used  conjugate  vaccines  (note  the  y-axis  is  a  log  scale).  As  can  be  seen,  the  greatest  risk  period  for  bacterial  meningitis  is  in  the  first  6  months  of  life.