epidemiology of meningitis studied at a university hospital in zahedan, south-eastern iran

background meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes, which surround the brain and spinal cord. early treatment of bacterial meningitis can prevent serious complications. in the last two decades, three vaccines have been developed against the three main bacterial species implicated in meningitis of children in western countries and vaccine-preventable invasive bacterial meningitis has decreased substantially in the past few years. however, none of the developed vaccines are part of our childhood immunization schedule. objectives this study aimed to search the epidemiology of meningitis in zahedan. patients and methods in this cross–sectional survey, we studied all patients with meningitis for ten years, from may 2004 to may 2014, who had been referred to our hospital. the patients were evaluated according to their sex, age, clinical features, risk factors, pathogenic microorganisms, form of infection (acute or chronic) and clinical outcome. results among the 53 patients with meningitis (47% females; 53% males with mean age 36 years) 47 cases (83%) had acute meningitis and six cases (17%) had chronic meningitis (four cases of tuberculosis and two cases of brucellosis). from the 47 cases with acute meningitis, only one case had a positive cerebrospinal fluid (csf) culture for meningococci and 46 patients had negative csf culture. the most common clinical symptoms was fever and headache (90%) and the least was seizure (9%). mortality rate was 7.5% (4 cases). there were no significant risk factors except for two patients with acute meningitis and two cases with chronic meningitis. conclusions according to negative csf cultures in acute meningitis, csf culture using the bactec automated system and specific viral tests is recommended for detection of the etiological agents of viral and bacterial meningitis, particularly in the iranian population where patients use antibiotics without prescription.