Resource-specific acute meningitis guidelines - a welcome addition

Abstract

Chronic meningitis, often caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Cryptococcus neoformans , has received a great deal of attention in South Africa as its incidence has increased along with that of HIV. By comparison acute meningitis caused by a different range of pathogens, has received relatively little attention while continuing to exact a large burden of morbidity and mortality. There are a number of guidelines for acute meningitis from high resource countries 1,2 but these may be less applicable to resource-limited countries like South Africa, a large proportion of whose population live in deeply rural areas with limited access to healthcare. There are also guidelines for acute meningitis in resource-poor settings 3 but such settings are heterogenous, particularly throughout Africa.