The Epidemiology of Meningitis among Adults in a South African Province with a High HIV Prevalence, 2009-2012.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Meningitis is a major cause of mortality in southern Africa. We aimed to describe the aetiologies and frequencies of laboratory-confirmed fungal and bacterial meningitis among adults in a South African province with an 11% HIV prevalence, over 4 years.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective, observational study of secondary laboratory data, extracted on all cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens submitted to public-sector laboratories in Gauteng province from 2009 through 2012. We calculated cause-specific incidence rates in the general and HIV-infected populations and used Poisson regression to determine if trends were significant.

Results

We identified 11,891 (10.7%) incident cases of meningitis from 110,885 CSF specimens. Cryptococcal meningitis, tuberculou

SUBMITTER: Britz E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5036788 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature