ESCMID guideline: diagnosis and treatment of acute bacterial meningitis

Bacterial meningitis is a severe infectious disease of the membranes lining the brain resulting in a high mortality and morbidity throughout the world. In the past decades the epidemiology and treatment strategies for community-acquired bacterial meningitis have significantly changed [1–3]. First, the introduction of conjugate vaccines in Europe resulted in the virtual disappearance of Haemophilus influenzae type b, while conjugate pneumococcal and meningococcal vaccines have substantially reduced the burden of bacterial meningitis [1].