Bacterial meningitis (BM) is a life-threatening condition which affects the central nervous system (CNS). Its incidence rate is estimated between 0.22 - 2.66 and 0.81 - 6.1 cases/1000 lives worldwide and in Africa respectively. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of bacterial organisms isolated from CSF of children less than five years old in Windhoek. A retrospective analysis was performed on 784 results of CSF submitted to the Namibia Institute of Pathology (NIP) from January 2010 to August 2014. The results showed that out of the suspected meningitis cases, 18 (28.6%) were due to
Streptococcus pneumoniae, making it the frequently isolated organism, followed by
Staphylococcus aureus 7 (11.1%), Escherichia coli 5 (7.9%) and
Haemophilus influenzae 4 (6.3%).
Streptococcus pneumoniae showed high resistance to penicillin 17 (70.5%) & cotrimoxazole 16 (93.7%) and 100% susceptibility to ciprofloxacin (5), vancomycin (13) & ceftri-axone (8).
Haemophilus influenzae showed moderate resistance to cotrimoxazole 3 (66%) & tet-racycline 2 (50%). It showed 100% sensitivity to chloramphenicol (4), cefuroxime (2) & ceftriaxone (3).
Neisseria meningitidis showed high resistance to cotrimoxazole by 100% (n = 2) and high sensitivity to chloramphenicol (n = 2), ceftriaxone & penicillin by 100% (n = 2). Streptococcus
agalactiae was resistant to tetracycline and sensitive to penicillin & erythromycin by 100% (n = 1).
Streptococcus pneumoniae was isolated the most in this current study and it had high resistance to penicillin & cotrimoxazole. There was a significant difference between results CSF culture and PCR, Gram stain, CSF cell count, protein & glucose, as all comparisons yielded in P values less than 0.05, indicating a significant statistical association.