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Abstract
Bacterial meningitis is caused by a variety of pathogens and displays an important public health threat all over the world. Despite the necessity to develop customized public health-related research projects, a thorough study of global meningitis research is not present, so far. Therefore, the aim of this study was a combined density-equalizing and scientometric study. To evaluate the scientific efforts of bibliometric methods, density-equalizing algorithms and large-scale data analysis of the Web of Science were applied in the period between 1900 and 2007. From this, 7998 publications on bacterial meningitis have been found. With a number of 2698, most publications have been written by U.S. authors, followed by the UK (912), Germany (749) and France (620). This dominance can also be shown in the international cooperation. The specific citation analyses reveal that the nation with the highest average citation rate (citations per publications) was Norway (26.36), followed by Finland (24.16) and the U.S. (24.06). This study illustrates the architecture of global research on bacterial meningitis and points to the need for customized research programs with a focus on local public health issues in countries with a low development index, but high incidences, to target this global public health problem.
Highlights
From a global point of view, all issues related to its epidemiology, rapid diagnosis, economic treatment and prevention [3,4,5] are major public health issues, since meningitis affects children, adolescents and adults in all parts of the world [6,7]
Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and Neisseria meningitidis cause the majority of cases of acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) in countries with a high development index [13,14], but the epidemiology of the disease is rapidly changing due to immunization practices and changing bacterial resistance patterns [12,15]
By using the defined search string, the analysis reveals 7998 publications on bacterial meningitis in the period examined
Summary
It is an important public health issue whether cases arises in a public health setting or sporadically in the community, i.e., in schools or nursery schools [1,2]. Meningitis is defined as an inflammation of the protective membranes that surround the brain and the spinal cord. It involves the pia mater, the arachnoid and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) [8]; arachnoiditis or leptomeningitis are used to describe the sickness. Bacterial meningitis is a medical emergency associated with high rates of morbidity, mortality [9,10] and a wide range of different causative organisms. Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and Neisseria meningitidis cause the majority of cases of acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) in countries with a high development index [13,14], but the epidemiology of the disease is rapidly changing due to immunization practices and changing bacterial resistance patterns [12,15]
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