The burden of bacterial meningitis in newborn babies in the UK and Ireland: establishing standards of care to improve the outcome
Current research
- Health Protection Agency, Salisbury, UK, Birmingham Women’s Hospital, Birmingham, UK, St George's University of London, London, UK, St Mary’s Hospital, London, UK
- Researchers:
Catherine Goodall, Dr Alan Johnson, Dr Mark Anthony, Dr Nelly Ninis, Dr Paul Heath
- Start Date: 01 February 2010
- Type: Lay summary
- View scientific version
MRF need your help in recruiting patients to this vitally important study. The results will help scientists measure the impact of bacterial meningitis in newborn babies and to develop guidelines to improve management and treatment in hospital. This will ultimately improve the outcome for babies in the future.
What are the issues?
The risk of developing meningitis is highest in the newborn period. This is still a very serious illness despite availability of antibiotics for treatment. There are currently no vaccines against the main bacteria that cause meningitis in this age group (Group B Streptococcus and E coli). It is therefore important to find ways of improving current management.
What do we know now?
Preliminary information from the first part of this study between 2010 and 2011 showed that the number of cases has not decreased over time and sadly babies still die and some have severe consequences.
How do we take this knowledge forward?
Currently this group are recruiting into a healthcare delivery study where the management of each case of neonatal meningitis will be examined in detail. This will be added to the data already collected in the first part of the study which looked at just the number of cases and their causes.
The researchers are now specifically interested in the onset and progression of the problems as they are first noted by parents before hospital admission / diagnosis, the type of help sought and parental experience of hospital management.
They will also review each case’s medical notes in detail to find out how they were managed in terms of timing of antibiotics, use of fluids and other types of therapy, complications and follow up. This will provide important information for developing evidence based guidelines for the management of future cases.
Previous studies in England showed that about half of babies that suffered bacterial meningitis in their first month of life in the 1980s and 1990s developed some form of neuro-developmental problems at 5 year follow up. This group therefore propose contacting the babies recruited to this current study at 2 years of age to assess their development, in order to see if this is still the case.
Who is eligible?
Babies less than 3 months of age who have had confirmed bacterial meningitis from 1 July 2010 are eligible to take part in the study.
How can you take part?
If your baby was affected by bacterial meningitis from July 2010 in the UK or ROI and was less than 90 days of age at the time, please contact MRF by email: gillianc@meningitis.org or via helpline phone 080 8800 3344 (UK), 1800 41 33 44 (RoI).
You can also access the study information by contacting the study Research Fellow (Dr Okike) on 020 87253887 or meningitis@sgul.ac.uk or by visiting www.neonin.com.
Once you make contact and review the information, researchers will liaise with your local hospital to get NHS approval if not in place already and then send the study pack to you via your child’s Paediatrician. In the pack will be a 30 minute questionnaire for you to complete. No blood test is required
Dr Okike says “We hope that you will consider taking part in this very important study.”
The study is funded by the Meningitis Research Foundation and sponsored by St George’s, University of London. Ethics approval was granted by Cambridgeshire 2 REC (ref: 10/H0308/64).