Epidemic and microbiological characterization of bacterial meningoencephalitis

Background: bacterial meningoencephalitis constitutes a health problem in the planet representing a challenge for doctors because of the patient's management to guarantee him the life. The present work was conducted in the Provincial Center of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology of Camagüey. Objective: to show the epidemic and microbiological behavior of meningoencephalitis in the province. Method: a descriptive and analytic study to determine aspects about the epidemic and microbiological behavior of bacterial meningoencephalitis in Camagüey province was conducted from the year 2000 up to 2008. The sample was constituted by one-hundred ninety-six cases. Results: a drop of the morbimortality was demonstrated with elevation of lethality. One-hundred-eight strains were isolated. Microorganisms like: Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis and Haemophilus influenzae type b were diagnosed. In infants Salmonella B, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Veillonella and Streptococcus agalactiae were isolated. In adults there was a bacterial explosion represented by enterobacteria, non fermenting Gram-negative bacilli, Staphylococcus aureus and Micrococcus. We find forty causal strains of deaths: in children at the expense of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis and Haemophilus influenzae, and, in adults, Streptococcus pneumoniae and the 100 percent of enterobacteria, non fermenting bacilli and Staphylococcus aureus. Conclusions: the bacteriological study by direct exam and LCR culture constituted the gold test for the bacterial meningoencephalitis diagnosis.