Bacterial meningitis in children.

Cases of bacterial, non-tuberculous meningitis among Auckland children aged one month to 13 years were reviewed for the five year period September 1971 to September 1976. The aetiological agent was established in 203 of 227 cases. Haemophilus influenzae was the most frequent cause and together with Streptococcus pneumoniae accounted for all sequelae S. pneumoniae was responsible for most fatal cases. It is an unusually common cause of meningitis in Auckland, particularly in children under a year of age. Polynesians contracted bacterial meningitis almost four times as often as Europeans. For a Polynesian child the risk of death due to bacterial meningitis was 12 times that of European.