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Most common cause of meningitis?

16K views 16 replies 12 participants last post by  jahn77 
#1 ·
What exactly is the most common cause of meningitis in children 6months to 6 years old?

According to Goljan's Rapid Review : N.Meningitidis is most common cause of meningitis from 1 month to 18 years of age.
USMLE Rx : Strep Pneumo is most common cause for 6 months to 6 years old.

So if a 3 year old boy has meningitis, what is the most likely cause?
 
#4 ·
This is clearly mentioned in First Aid and Kaplan:

Newborns:
1- GBS
2- E.coli
3- listeria
Children less than 6 years:
1- strep pneumoniae
2- neisseria
3- h influenzae
4- enteroviruses
6 years to 60 years:
1- neisseria meningitidis
2- enteroviruses
3- strep pneumoniae
4- HSV
Over 60 years:
1- strep pneumoniae
2- listeria

The story is different in HIV and immunocompramized patients where you have to think of listeria, fungi, JC virus, and toxoplasmosis.
 
#5 ·
Our microbiology teacher told us that there's no clear epidemiology nowadays regarding this because we started to see the effects of universal pneumococcal vaccination and therefore step pneumoniae is no longer on top of the list and n. meningitidis is becoming more and more but then again because of universal vaccination of college students even n.meningitis is becoming less and therefore perhaps right now the most common cause is viruses in young adults
 
#10 ·
It's established that there's a debate about this. Ofcourse I had the same problem. Last thing I read is in UW, they said that N.meningitis is the 2nd most common cause of bacterial meningitis before the age of 60 after strept. pneumonia, and they put in their reference, this is the only question they put their reference in :confused:. While FA says N.meningitis the most common cause...
 
#14 · (Edited)
Act.

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common cause of meningitis in patients older than 20 years, accounting for almost 50% of the cases. N.Meningitidis is the second cause, with 25% of cases. This is due to the widespread vaccination against both H.Influenze(which had a great decline, before it was one of the most common causes) and N.Meningitidis (which had a smaller decline). N.Meningitidis accounts for up to 60% of cases in children and young adults between the ages of 2 to 20 years.This information was taken from Harrisons Internal Medicine, 17th edition. I guess First Aid has to fix that issue, the other issue I saw wasn't actualized was the most common cause of adult nephrotic syndrome, which I got to know by doing the kaplan qbank, so it is important to do the online version to get the newest information.
Since the exam is most likely to ask you a cause depending on case scenario, just look for the difference that will guide you, gram positive versus gram negative, and the characteristic petechial or pupuric skin lesions that is only seen with N. Meningitidis.
 
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