PREVALENCE AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS OF NEONATAL MENINGITIS AMONG NEONATES ADMITTED WITH NEONATAL SEPSIS AT GONDAR UNIVERSITY COMPREHENSIVE SPECIALIZED HOSPITAL, NORTH WEST ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Abstract Background Neonatal meningitis continuous to be serious problem with high mortality and morbidity. Most commonly occur in first month of life than any other period with incidence 0.2-0.5 per 1000 live birth. The presenting clinical feature of meningitis is more or less similar to those of sepsis. The absence of specific clinical manifestation makes the diagnosis of meningitis more difficult in neonate than older children. Method: Prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Pediatrics, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and GUH on 171 neonate presenting with neonatal sepsis. A pretested and structured questionnaire containing sociodemographic, clinical, Laboratory parameters was used for data collection. The data was collected after we obtain ethical clearance by trained GPs, residents, interns and nurses. The data was registered on Microsoft excel spread sheet initially and analyzed using SPSS version24.0computer software. At confidence interval a p-value<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Result: The prevalence of neonatal meningitis among suspected sepsis was 19.3%. The male: female ratio was l.7:1. Mean gestational age 37.4 weeks (SD±2.4), mean birth weight 2766.7(SD±649) and mean postnatal age 9.74(SD±8.54) with none of this parameters being significantly different from those without meningitis. But prolonged labor?24hours and ROM?18 hours are significantly associated with those meningitis (P=0.001 and P=0.00 respectively). The most common clinical features were failure to breast feed 29(87.9%), seizure 7(21.2%), vomiting 15(45.5%), fever 23(69.7%), altered mentation 4(12.1%). Blood culture and CSF culture only positive in 6% neonate with meningitis