title: Pediatric bacterial meningitis in French Guiana.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Controlling vaccine-preventable infectious diseases is a public health priority in French Guiana but there is currently no epidemiological data on pediatric bacterial meningitis in this overseas department. Our aim was to describe data related to pediatric bacterial meningitis in French Guiana and compare it with that of metropolitan France.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a multicenter retrospective study from 2000 to 2010 to describe the clinical picture, biological data, epidemiology, and outcome of pediatric bacterial meningitis case patients in French Guiana.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median age of bacterial meningitis patients was 6months [0-15] and the sex ratio 1.06. We observed a total of 60 bacterial meningitis case patients. Most presented with pneumococcal meningitis (24 patients; 40%); 11 with Haemophilus influenzae type b meningitis (23%), five with group B streptococcal meningitis (8.5%), and five others (8.5%) with staphylococcal meningitis (three patients presented with coagulase-negative staphylococci and two with Staphylococcus aureus). Only one patient presented with group B meningococcal meningitis, an 18-month-old infant. We recorded 14 deaths (overall case fatality: 23%); eight were due to Streptococcus pneumoniae (case fatality: 33%). The overall sequelae rate was 28%. It was 32% for patients presenting with pneumococcal meningitis. We observed that 38% of children who had never been vaccinated were infected by a vaccine-preventable bacterium. We observed many differences in the distribution of the bacteria and in the patients' prognosis when comparing the French Guiana data with that of metropolitan France.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Improving vaccination coverage would decrease the incidence of H. influenzae meningitis.
authors.affiliation: Service de pédiatrie, centre hospitalier de Cayenne « Andrée-Rosemon », rue des Flamboyants, BP 6006, 97306 Cayenne cedex, French Guiana. Electronic address: elengafr@yahoo.fr.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Elenga
authors.affiliation: Service de pédiatrie, centre hospitalier de Cayenne « Andrée-Rosemon », rue des Flamboyants, BP 6006, 97306 Cayenne cedex, French Guiana.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sicard
authors.affiliation: Service de pédiatrie, centre hospitalier de Cayenne « Andrée-Rosemon », rue des Flamboyants, BP 6006, 97306 Cayenne cedex, French Guiana.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cuadro-Alvarez
authors.affiliation: Service de pédiatrie, centre hospitalier de Cayenne « Andrée-Rosemon », rue des Flamboyants, BP 6006, 97306 Cayenne cedex, French Guiana.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: Service de pédiatrie, centre hospitalier de Cayenne « Andrée-Rosemon », rue des Flamboyants, BP 6006, 97306 Cayenne cedex, French Guiana.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Njuieyon
authors.affiliation: Service de pédiatrie, centre hospitalier de Cayenne « Andrée-Rosemon », rue des Flamboyants, BP 6006, 97306 Cayenne cedex, French Guiana.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Service de pédiatrie, centre hospitalier de Cayenne « Andrée-Rosemon », rue des Flamboyants, BP 6006, 97306 Cayenne cedex, French Guiana.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kom-Tchameni
authors.affiliation: Service de pédiatrie, centre hospitalier de Cayenne « Andrée-Rosemon », rue des Flamboyants, BP 6006, 97306 Cayenne cedex, French Guiana.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Balcaen
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de bactériologie, centre hospitalier de Cayenne « Andrée-Rosemon », rue des Flamboyants, BP 6006, 97306 Cayenne cedex, French Guiana.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Moreau
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de biologie médicale, centre hospitalier de l'Ouest Guyane « Franck-Joly », 16, boulevard du Général-de-Gaulle, BP 245, 97393 Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni cedex, French Guiana.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Boukhari
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D005616:French Guiana / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D016920:Meningitis, Bacterial / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: French Guiana; Guyane; Méningites bactériennes pédiatriques; Pediatric bacterial meningitis; Vaccination