LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Meningitis: Children
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The long-term outlook for children who develop bacterial meningitis varies significantly. The outcome depends on the child's age, the bacteria causing the infection, complications, and the treatment the child receives. The complications of bacterial meningitis can be severe and include neurological problems such as hearing loss, visual impairment, seizures, and learning disabilities. The heart, kidneys, and adrenal glands may ... be affected. Although some children develop long-lasting problems, most children who receive prompt diagnosis and treatment recover fully.
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Viral meningitis is milder and occurs more often than bacterial meningitis. It usually develops in the late summer and early fall, often affects children and adults under 30. Seventy percent of the infections occur in children under the age of 5. Most viral meningitis is associated with enteroviruses, which are viruses that commonly cause stomach flu. However, many other types of viruses can ... cause meningitis; for example, viral meningitis may occur as a complication in people with genital herpes.
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[T]he widespread use of the HIB vaccination has decreased the incidence of HIB meningitis by more than 90% (see Table 1). As a result of this practice, HIB meningitis has been nearly eliminated in many developed countries where routine HIB vaccination is used. Consequently, bacterial meningitis is becoming more of a disease of adults, with the median age of patients shifting from younger than 2 years to 25 years. A total of 255 cases of invasive H influenzae disease among children younger than 5 years was reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1998 (in contrast to 20,000 cases of invasive disease among children in 1987). This shift has reportedly been less dramatic in the developing countries where the use of the HIB vaccine is not as widespread.
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Haemophilus meningitis is most frequently caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b... known as Hib. Before effective vaccines became available and widely used, Hib was the most frequent cause of bacterial meningitis in children 5 years of age and younger. In Illinois, an average of 230 cases were reported annually. However, from 1985 to 1996, there was an 82 percent reduction of Haemophilus influenzae meningitis. Currently, there is an average of 50 cases per year; the fatality rate is about 5 percent. This large decrease is believed to be due to routine use of Hib vaccines.
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Many children as of 2004 routinely receive vaccines against meningitis, starting at about two months of age. Immunizations are recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and many other organizations. If a child has not been vaccinated, parents should talk to their doctor about the Hib and pneumococcal (Prevnar 7) vaccines.
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Bacterial meningitis can occur at any age, but 95 percent of cases are in children under 5 years old. Boys are more likely to get it than girls. Together, three types of bacteria account for over 90 percent of bacterial meningitis: H. influenza type b, meningococcus, and pneumococcus. These bacteria are transmitted by person-to-person contact through respiratory secretions. Many people carry these bacteria with no serious consequence (pneumococcus, for instance, is the most common cause of ear infections) -- but a few get very sick (pneumococcus causes meningitis in about 3 per 100,000 people).
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