Altantsetseg D¹, Bulgan D², Anu D¹, Sarantuya J²

¹National Center for Communicable Diseases

²Health Sciences University Mongolia

Childhood bacterial meningitis is severe and largely preventable by vaccination. Little data on childhood meningitis exist in Asia. The objective of study was to determine serotypes of this bacterial meningitis caused by N.meningitidis, H.influenzae, S.pneumoniae in Mongolia. We conducted prospective, active, hospital-based surveillance for bacterial meningitis in children up to 5 years of age. Clinical data, blood and cerebrospinal fluid were collected according to a standart protocol. Multiplex and RT-PCR were used for serotyping.

From February 2002 to December 2011, 577 suspected meningitis cases were enrolled. We estimated that the incidence of bacterial meningitis during 10 years of study in children younger than 5 years was 20.4 cases per 100,000. The most dominant bacterial pathogens are N.meningitidis A, 6A/B/C,2,14,7F serotypes of S.pneumoniae, H.influenzae type b. Among children younger than that of 5 years of age, S.pneumoniae, N.meningitidis and H.influenzae were the predominant causes of bacterial meningitis and the morbidity rate was higher than other Asian countries.