Meningitis Leaves One in Three Children With Permanent Brain Damage—Study

One in three children who have been diagnosed with bacterial meningitis experience permanent neurological disabilities as a result of the infection, scientists have warned.

Meningitis causes inflammation in the layers of tissue that surround the brain and spinal cord. The infection can be caused by bacteria or a virus, although the bacterial infection is usually considered to be more dangerous. Indeed, bacterial meningitis can be life-threatening and requires immediate medical attention.

In the U.S., roughly one in 100,000 people—or roughly 3,000 individuals—are diagnosed with bacterial meningitis every year, according to Boston Children's Hospital. Many are children.

Even if it is treated effectively with antibiotics, bacterial meningitis can inflict permanent damage on the brain, including hearing loss and neurological issues. And, according to a new study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, these permanent disabilities affect one in three infected children.

"When children are affected, the whole family is affected," Federico Iovino, associate professor in medical microbiology at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and one of the authors of the current study, said in a statement. "If a 3-year-old child has impaired cognition, a motor disability, impaired or lost vision or hearing, it has a major impact. These are lifelong disabilities that become a major burden for both the individual and society, as those affected need health care support for the rest of their lives."

By analyzing data from the Swedish quality register on bacterial meningitis from 1987 to 2021, the team was able to compare over 3,500 cases of childhood infection with just over 32,000 matched controls in the general population. Over a 23-year period, the team saw that those who had been diagnosed with bacterial meningitis were consistently more likely to develop neurological disabilities, such as cognitive impairment, vision or hearing loss, motor impairment, seizures, behavior disorders or structural damage to the head. This equated to one in three individuals who had been infected as children, compared to one in 10 who had not.

"This shows that even if the bacterial infection is cured, many people suffer from neurological impairment afterwards," Iovino said.

This is the first study to assess the burden of bacterial meningitis on populations in this way, the authors say. Using this data, they hope to accelerate research into treatments and prevention strategies for this life-changing infection.

"We are trying to develop treatments that can protect neurons in the brain during the window of a few days it takes for antibiotics to take full effect," Iovino said. "We now have very promising data from human neurons and are just entering a preclinical phase with animal models. Eventually, we hope to present this in the clinic within the next few years."

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