Department of Neurology, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, USA
Review Article
Etiologies of community acquired bacterial meningitis and antibiotic resistance patterns in Africa over the last 30 years: A Systematic Review
Author(s): Vivian S Namale*, Carla Kim, Yifei Sun, Angela Curcio, Allison Navis, Richard Idro and Kiran T. Thakur
Community Acquired Bacterial Meningitis (CABM) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa, affecting over 2.8 million people annually. The African continent bears the largest burden of CABM with six out of the ten countries having the highest incidence and mortality. This systematic review set out to determine the leading causes of CABM in Africa, the distribution of etiologies across regions, and the extent of antimicrobial resistance of identified microbial agents. Methodology: The databases PubMed and Embase were queried with key search words “bacterial meningitis in Africa”, “community acquired bacterial meningitis” or “meningitis in Africa” published between 1990 and 2019. Using the PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews, the search retrieved 112,972 articles. We included studies reporting primary patient data with confirmed CABM.. View More»
