Meningitis in children and adolescents – still a challenge

Young children, especially infants, have a much higher in­ci­dence of bacterial meningitis, especially meningococcal and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), compared to ol­der children. There is likely still a non-trivial burden of me­nin­go­co­c­cal meningitis in children in Romania, es­pe­cially in younger age groups. Because many of the data are from pre- or early-vaccine eras (for Hib, pneumococcal infection, meningococcal infection, etc.), the current burden may be lower for some pathogens, but for meningococcal disease especially, if vaccine uptake is low or the vaccine is not part of national policy, the risk may still be substantial. Adolescents may be underrepresented in surveillance or re­por­ting, meaning interventions targeted at that age group might not be well-informed or resourced. Also, sero­group distribution (MenA, B, C, W, Y) in children is not well do­cu­men­ted in recent years (in fully representative na­tio­nal data). Information on disease outcomes (mortality, long-term se­quelae) by age groups is scarce in recent pu­bli­ca­tions, as well as vaccine impact estimates for me­nin­go­coc­cal vaccination. There is a constant need for im­pro­ving vac­cination schedule to also include meningitis vac­ci­na­tion.