According to a recent epidemiological study conducted by the Karolinska Institutet that was published in the top medical journal JAMA Network Open, one in every three children with bacterial meningitis has irreparable neurological abnormalities due to the infection.
For the first time, experts have identified the long-term health repercussions of bacterial meningitis. The infection is treated with antibiotics, which typically causes irreparable neurological damage.
“When children are affected, the whole family is affected. If a three-year-old child has impaired cognition, a motor disability, impaired or lost vision or hearing, it has a major impact. These are lifelong disabilities that become a major burden for both the individual and society, as those affected need health care support for the rest of their lives,” said Federico Iovino, associate professor in Medical Microbiology at the Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, and one of the authors of the current study.
Researchers analysed data from the Swedish quality register on bacterial meningitis between 1987 and 2021, and compared just over 3500 people who contracted bacterial meningitis as children with just over 32,000 matched controls from the general population.
The results show that those diagnosed with bacterial meningitis consistently have a higher prevalence of neurological disabilities such as cognitive impairment, seizures, visual or hearing impairment, motor impairment, behavioural disorders, or structural damage to the head.
Federico Iovino said, “This shows that even if the bacterial infection is cured, many people suffer from neurological impairment afterwards.” With the long-term effects of bacterial meningitis identified, Federico and his colleagues will now move forward with their research.
