Pediatr. praxi. 2017;18(1):8-11 | DOI: 10.36290/ped.2017.002
The spectrum of bacteria causing purulent meningitis in children in the Czech Republic has changed over the last decades, depending
on the implementation of vaccination programmes against diseases caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus
influenzae b, and Neisseria meningitidis. Prior to the introduction of the above-mentioned vaccination strategies, these bacterial
agents were predominant; recently, their proportion has dramatically decreased. The 2015 EPIDAT (infectious disease reporting
system) data show ten cases of purulent meningitis in children under 5 years of age, out of which nine were confirmed in children
under 1 year of age, with none of the cases having been fatal. In 2015, surveillance programmes detected, in children under 5 years
of age, 21 invasive pneumococcal diseases, 18 invasive meningococcal diseases, one invasive disease caused by H. influenzae b, and
two cases of invasive haemophilus non-b disease. Purulent meningitis caused by H. influenzae b, pneumococci, and meningococci
are preventable with vaccination, and it is the paediatrician who has a very important role in appealing to parents in order to help
maintain and/or increase the vaccination coverage of small infants against these diseases.
Published: April 4, 2017 Show citation