The incidence and aetiology of central nervous system infections in Helsinki in 1980

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Abstract
The etiology of CNS infections was surveyed in a study at Aurora Hospital, Helsinki, in 1980. Of the 146 patients with CNS infections, 113 had aseptic meningitis, 23 bacterial and 7 tuberculous meningitis and 9 meningoencephalitis or encephalitis. The probable etiology of aseptic meningitis was established in 67% of the 106 patients properly tested, the commonest agents being mumps (27%), Coxsackie (24%) and ECHO (9%) viruses. Haemophilus influenzae type b was the most frequent cause of bacterial meningitis (39%), occurring solely among infants and young children. There were no cases due to Neisseria meningitidis group A, which used to be an epidemic in Finland. The incidences of aspetic, bacterial and tuberculous meningitis in Helsinki in 1980 (based on a total of 174 patients treated in the 3 hospitals admitting patients with CNS infections) were 26.7, 5.2 and 0.2 cases/100,000 annually, and those of encephalitides and myelitis 3.5 and 0.6 cases/100,000 annually.