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Previous Volume 351:1826-1828 October 28, 2004 Number 18 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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The history of community-acquired bacterial meningitis arguably represents the best example of the salutary effect of the introduction of antimicrobial agents. Before the use of specific antiserums, the outlook for patients with bacterial meningitis was dismal (see Figure). In the 1920s, 77 of 78 children at Boston Children's Hospital who had Haemophilus influenzae meningitis died. The prognosis for untreated pneumococcal meningitis was equally bleak: of 300 patients, all died. In the first decade of the 20th century, untreated meningococcal meningitis was associated with a mortality rate of 75 to 80 percent.

View larger version (34K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure. Mortality Rates Associated with Community-Acquired Bacterial Meningitis . . . [Full Text of this Article]

 

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From the Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.

Related Letters:

Prognostic Factors in Adults with Bacterial Meningitis
Joffe A. R., Østergaard C., Klussmann J. P., Guntinas-Lichius O., Altschuler E. L., van de Beek D., de Gans J., Swartz M. N.
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N Engl J Med 2005; 352:512-515, Feb 3, 2005. Correspondence

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