Risk Factors for Death from Meningococcal Infection in Recife, Brazil

To determine the case fatality rate and risk factors for death in children with invasive meningococcal infection, 163 children admitted with meningococcal disease to the Instituto Materno Infantil de Pernambuco, a tertiary paediatric teaching hospital in Recife, Brazil, were included in this retrospective cohort study. Cases were categorised as meningitis, septicaemia and septicaemia with meningitis. Forty-six (28.2 per cent) children had meningitis alone, 88 (54 per cent) septicaemia and meningitis and 29 (17.8 per cent) only septicaemia. Four of the patients with meningitis died (8.7 per cent), compared to 31 out of the 88 (35.2 per cent) with septicaemia and meningitis and 18 of the 29 (62.1 per cent) with septicaemia alone (p