Diagnosis and treatment of bacterial meningitis

In Germany, cases of meningitis and encephalitis are registered by the epidemiological service. In 1988, the Republican Ministry of Health received 4301 reports of these diseases: 488 cases of meningococcal meningitis, 1192 of bacterial meningitis of a different etiology, 962 of viral meningoencephalitis, and 1659 of meningitis and encephalitis of a different etiology (Phn, 1990).