The burden of bacterial meningitis in newborn babies in the UK and Ireland: establishing standards of care to improve the outcome

Current research

Meningitis in the first 3 months of life is associated with significant mortality and long term disability. In comparison with older studies it appears that the death rate has fallen but the amount of disability that occurs has not changed. We wish to find out how much of a problem meningitis in this age group now is, how it is being managed and identify any opportunities for improvements in diagnosis and management. We aim to do this through a comprehensive study of all cases of meningitis under 3 months of age that occur over a 13 month period throughout the UK and Ireland. We will do this by asking paediatricians to notify us of cases as they occur (through a routine reporting source called the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit) as well as through laboratory reports and reports from parents of cases. We will ask paediatricians to complete a questionnaire on the case. With parents permission we will also aim to get further information about how these cases have been managed by extracting detailed information from their hospital notes. We will compare their management to "Best Practice" standards that we will develop through an evidence-based review of the published literature and an expert panel. We hope to identify areas where improvement in the current care of these infants is possible and anticipate that such improvements will result in better outcomes for all infants with meningitis.