Introduction:

Meningitis is an important public health problem, which affects children under 5 years of age. The most frequent etiology is viral. Since the introduction of the conjugate vaccine against H. b, S. pneumoniae and N. meningitidis, they became the most frequent agents. In the hole country, in 2014 and 2015, the viral etiology was the most frequent with values ​​of 69% and 77%, respectively, being attributed to the bacterial ones as the second cause.

Objectives:

To know the epidemiological characteristics of meningitis in all ages hospitalized patients from January 2014 to October 2015 at the National Hospital of Itaugua, Paraguay.

Methodology:

Epidemiological, descriptive, cross-sectional study. Patients of all ages admitted with suspected meningitis and / or encephalitis were included in the study.

Results:

During the study, 173 probable cases of 201 suspected cases of meningitis corresponding to 0.5% (173/35140) of all hospital admissions were registered. The more affected age group was the group of children under 5 and among patients with more than 5 years, were between 5 to 14 years; In 53%, they came from the central department.98 cases (57%) were viral encephalitis; Acute bacterial meningitis 65 cases (37%); 7 cases (4%) Fungal Meningitis (Cryptococcus). Of 41 confirmed viral cases (42%), 29 cases (71%) were by Enterovirus. 18 cases of MBA were confirmed; S.pneumoniae (8) or Spn, S were identified. Aureus (4), N.meningitidis (2) or NmStreptococcus group B (1), E. coli (1), S. Epidermidis MR (1) and S. agalactiae (1); From 5 Spn the sero types / serogroups were identified: 6C / 6D (1), serotype14 (1), serotype3 (1), NmW 135 (1), Nmsero group B (1) in a young adult case. There were 3 cases of encephalitis and 9 cases of MBA. Twenty-five cases were vaccinated for Hib and 16% were vaccinated against P.pneumoniae; No vaccination has been registered for Nm.

Conclusions:

The total incidence of meningitis in this period of study was 173 cases. More than half of the cases were of viral etiology; The most frequently identified bacterium was S. pneumoniae. In general, the most affected age group was children under 5 years of age. The majority coming from the Central department and Cordillera. The lethality was 3% in cases of viral encephalitis; 14% in MBA and 43% in Cryptococcus meningitis. It is unknown the vaccination status of almost half of the cases especially of the anti pneumococcal.

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