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Summary
A 5-year retrospective study of all children with acute pyogenic meningitis admitted to a district hospital in north-western Ethiopia was carried out from 1990 to 1994. A total of 132 cases of pyogenic meningitis were identified. The causative bacteria were identified in 85 (64%) patients. The most common pathogen was Haemophilus influenzae (40%) with a case fatality rate of 29.4%, followed by Neisseria meningitidis (36.4%), which had a case fatality rate of 16.1%, and Streptococcus pneumoniae (20%) with a case fatality rate of 35.3%. Boys accounted for 64% of the patients, giving a male:female ratio of 1.7:1. Median patient age was 0.75 years, and median ages of those infected by H. influenza, N. meningitidis, and S. pneumoniae were 0.5, 4.0 and 0.6 years, respectively. The overall case fatality rate was 28%. The mortality rate of children below the age of 1 year was 38.4% and 13.8% for those above 1 year.