Incidencia de meningitis neumocócica en niños de 0 a 23 meses en Cantabria. Estudio retrospectivo 1997 - 2001

Abstract

Objective: Contribute to the knowledge of the epidemiology of pneumococcal disease in our country and know the real incidence of pneumococcal meningitis in the child population under 2 years in Cantabria. Patients and methods: Retrospective study (january 1, 1997 to december 31, 2001) of patients under 2 years admitted to our Service in which S. Pneumoniae was isolated in blood and/or CSF associated to clinical and analytical signs of bacterial meningitis. The clinical records were reviewed and the incidence rates were calculated with the 95% confidence interval in the different age groups (0 to 11 months and 0 to 23 months). The number of children and their distribution by ages was obtained form the Natural Movement of the Population of Cantabria, from the National Statistics Institute (www.ine.es/tempus/cgi-bin/itie). The statistical calculation was performed with the binomial exact method. Results: In the period studied, 4 patients were detected with pneumococcal meningitis, all of them with an age inferior to 12 months. The incidence rate in the first year of life is 20.13 (95% confidence interval: 5.49-51.54) and in children from 0 to 24 months of 10.19 (95% confidence interval: 2.78-26.12). Conclusions: Our study shows an elevated incidence of pneumococcal meningitis in Cantabria, especially in the first year of life (20.13 cases per 100,000 inhabitants). The incidence rate is similar to that found in other communities of our country.