Comparison of the prevalence of meningitis and its causes in children with febrile seizures in Tabriz Children's Hospital before and after immunization with Pentavalent vaccine

Abstract

The frequency of bacterial meningitis has decreased worldwide with the introduction of immunization against bacterial pathogens, but still important in children with febrile seizures, especially in less immunized communities. Mortality of Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) meningitis is about 5% in adults and reaches 55% in children. this study was aimed to compare the prevalence of meningitis and its associated factors in children with febrile seizures at Tabriz Pediatric Hospital before and after immunization with Pentavalent vaccine. Materials and Methods: Data on immunization schedule, clinical information and lumbar puncture (LP) culture of 782 children with fever seizure admitted to Tabriz Pediatric Hospital were collected during 2011-2017. Data were analyzed using IBM.SPSS software ver 23 and Mann-Whitney U, Independent Samples T-Test, Binominal Test, Chi Square and One Way ANNOVA. Results: Out of 782 referring children and 708 cases of LP, 27 cases (3.8%) had positive CSF culture and in other cases (96.2% = 681) CSF culture was negative. Frequency of positive cultures in the age group of 46 to 60 months was higher than other groups (P = 0.02). The frequency of positive culture in immunized and non immunized children were 2.3% (0.8% Haemophilus influenzae and 1.4 Streptococcus pneumoniae) and 6.7% (2.9% Haemophilus influenzae and 2.9 Streptococcus pneumoniae) respectively. The frequncy of either positive culture or Haemophilus influenzae positive culture were significantly higher in non immunized children (P=0.004 and P=0.023)