Table 1. Deaths due to CNS infection by select obligate and facultative intracellular microbes.

Pathogen	Growth inside phagocytes	Pathology	Burden (yearly deaths, in thousands)1
Streptococcus pneumoniae	Yes	Meningitis	113 [35]
Neisseria meningitidis	Yes	Meningitis	73.3 [35]
Mycobacterium tuberculosis	Yes	Meningitis, encephalitis, intracranial tuberculoma, brain abscesses	55.6 [35]2
Listeria monocytogenes	Yes	Meningitis, encephalitis, ventriculitis, choroiditis, brain abscesses	0.19 (US) [36]
Escherichia coli K1	Yes	Meningitis	Rare
Cryptococcus neoformans	Yes	Meningitis, encephalitis, cerebral cryptococcomas	181 [18]
Histoplasma capsulatum	Yes	Meningitis, encephalitis	80 [37]3
Coccidioides immitis	Yes	Meningitis, brain abscesses	<0.20 (US) [38]
Candida albicans	Yes4	Meningitis, encephalitis	<0.10 (US) [39]5
Other fungi (Aspergillus, Mucor, Blastomyces)	Yes4	Brain abscesses, meningitis, cerebral stroke	Rare
Plasmodium falciparum	No	Brain microvessel obstruction	584 [35]6
Trypanosoma cruzi	Yes	Meningitis, encephalitis	3.0 [35]7
Toxoplasma gondii	Yes	Encephalitis	0.20 (US) [39]8

¹ Worldwide deaths as reported in [35] unless denoted (by “US”) as United States burden only.

² This represents 5% of all deaths due to disseminated TB.

³ This represents all extrapulmonary infections; a value for deaths due to CNS infection alone is not available.

⁴ These fungi change morphology when inside phagocytes, killing the host cell.

⁵ Most deaths due to invasive candidiasis (approximately 350,000; [37]) are not attributable to CNS infection. This value is based on the US incidence and mortality rate (24%) for CNS candidiasis and the current US population of HIV+ patients.

⁶ This represents 80% of all deaths due to P. falciparum.

⁷ This represents one-third of all Chagas disease deaths; most are due to heart failure.

⁸ This value is based on the US incidence and mortality rate (14%) for T. gondii encephalitis and the current US population of HIV+ patients.

Abbreviations: CNS, central nervous system; TB, tuberculosis.