Epidemiologic profile of pediatric meningitis cases in Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

Meningitis is a disease that results from inflammation of the meninges and the subarachnoid space and can be caused by bacteria, viruses and other etiologic agents. The objective of this study was to quantify and characterize the cases of meningitis in the state of Minas Gerais (MG). This is an epidemiological study of pediatric meningitis (0 to 14 years old) notified to the Notifiable Diseases Information System known as SINAN in the period from 2010 to 2019. The average incidence of cases during the study period was 10.32 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants and the lethality was 7.86%. Through the analysis, it was observed that between 2010 and 2019, there was a decrease of 36% for the number of cases and 55% for the number of deaths caused by meningitis, in addition to a reduction in the incidence (-16%) and lethality (-40%). There was also a higher lethality in children under 1 year of age, and a predominance of cases in urban areas and in larger cities in MG. The main etiologies of meningitis identified in the study were viral (37%), not found (27%) and bacterial (16%), respectively. After analyzing the data, we concluded that meningitis is still an evident problem in MG and that the large percentage of unidentified etiology limits epidemiological studies and demonstrates diagnostic problems and difficulties in health promotion.