Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the incidence and death rate of meningococcal meningitis among military and non military population in Iran from 2000 to 2004. All patients with clinical sign and symptoms of meningitis and para clinical findings were entered to the study from 21st March 2000 to 21st March 2004. Meningococcal meningitis was diagnosed on the basis isolation of the Neisseria meningitidis in culture. CSF samples were provided at admission before commencing antibiotic therapy. Based on laboratory standard procedure all isolates were identified and final analysis revealed total number of approved meningococcal meningitides. In this comparative study meningococcal meningitides were 65 and 1370 cases in military and non-military patients, respectively. However, the total recorded cases of death were 7 in military group and 173 in non-military population. The incidence rate were 1.22 and 0.6 in 100000 in non-military and military population, respectively. The incidence of meningococcal meningitis among military personnel shows a sharp decline due to compulsory vaccination at least 2 weeks before arriving to military training camps; nonetheless, sporadic cases of the disease do occur perhaps as a result of complement deficiency in patients themselves or very late vaccination (around 2-3 days before arriving to military training camps). The findings of this study, consistent time of vaccination could be effective factor in order to prevent the infection.