Bacterial meningitis in infancy and childhood in Lusaka (One year prospective sturdy).

In approximately 10,000 admissions in a 12 months period, at University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka 85 cases of meningitis were recorded. The signs and symptoms in these patients do not greatly differ from other similar studies in Africa. The commonest organism isolated was pneumococcus. There was high mortality rate which was to a large extent due to parents not bringing their children to hospital early enough for medical treatment to be instituted. This is borne out by the fact that 50% of the children with meningitis died within the first 24 hours. The C.S.F. protein and peripheral white blood count may be of prognostic value. Spasticity, cranial nerve palsises hydrocephalus and subdural effusion were the commonest complications.