Acute bacterial meningitis in Rhode Island: a survey of the years 1976 to 1985.

There were 667 recorded cases of bacterial meningitis in the hospitals of Rhode Island during the ten year interval of 1976 to 1985 yielding an average annual incidence rate of 6.9 cases per 100,000 population, and a case fatality rate of 10.3%. These rates are similar to those generated in other retrospective surveys in the United States. This survey corroborates the well-established observation that bacterial meningitis is largely a disease of early childhood. But these data also suggest that meningitis in the very elderly is more common than had previously been assumed. Many of the elderly cases in this series, particularly those caused by the coliform organisms, followed shortly after body trauma or appeared in individuals burdened by disseminated cancer or diabetes mellitus.