Table. Causes of bacterial meningitis among patients at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi 1997–2009.
| Culture organism | No. cases (annual mean ± SE) |
p value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997–2002* | 2003–2009 | ||
| Streptococcus pneumoniae | 373 (74.6 ± 4.83) | 547 (78.1 ± 5.69) | 0.66 |
| Haemophilus influenzae type b | 266 (53.2 ± 5.51) | 68 (9.7 ± 1.91) | <0.0001 |
| Neisseria meningitides | 78 (15.6 ± 4.27) | 26 (3.7 ± 1.12) | 0.0106 |
| Salmonella spp.† | 62 (12.4 ± 4.27) | 65 (9.3 ± 1.91) | 0.48 |
| Other‡ | 40 (8.0 ± 2.70) | 66 (9.4 ± 2.51) | 0.71 |
| No growth | 100 (25.8 ± 3.40) | 205 (25.1 ± 1.65) | 0.85 |
*Excludes data from 2001. †Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (79), S. enterica serovar Enteriditis (22), S. enterica serovar Typhi (14), and other Salmonella spp. (9). These numbers reflect actual case counts. Numbers were adjusted for missing data. ‡Includes Klebsiella spp. (4), Staphylococcus aureus (5), Staphylococcus epidermidis (2), Escherichia coli (5), Brevundimonas vesicularis (1), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2), Streptococcus pyogenes (6), H. influenzae type C (4), H. influenzae nontype b (6), group B streptococci (2), group A streptococci (1), and other species and unidentified species observed by using Gram staining.