Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on pediatric meningitis incidence in central Morocco

Abstract

Bacterial meningitis is a diagnostic, therapeutic, and prophylactic emergency, particularly for children. In Morocco, meningitis remains a major public health challenge with lethality between 10% and 12% of cases. Our objective is to determine the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of pediatric meningitis in central Morocco. A retrospective epidemiological study was carried out in the Department of Pediatric Emergencies of the Mother and Child Hospital of Marrakech in Morocco. Data were collected from patient files of Meningitis cases reported during the confinement period in March, April, and May of 2019 and 2020 respectively. Then, data were analyzed using SPSS software. The results showed a notification of 72 cases of suspected meningitis between March 2019 and March 2020 with dominance of boys (up to 70%) and age range of 1 month to 2 years (up to 34%). We noted a decrease in the number of patients hospitalized for suspected meningitis during COVID-19 pandemic. The final diagnosis of suspected meningitis was confirmed for 20% of the cases during the containment period against only 2.38% before the pandemic. This difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Our investigations confirm the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of bacterial meningitis of children in the study area, more investigations are needed to generalize and explain these results in Morocco.