Abstract:
Background: Meningitis is an infection of the meninges, characterized by an onset of fever,
headache, neck stiffness, and photophobia over a period of hours to days. In Ethiopia, meningitis
due to an infectious agent is among the top ten causes of death among infants. The rate of
maternal and neonatal Group B streptococcus (GBS) colonization is high that contribute to
acquisition of meningitis. However, there is study gap to rule out GBS meningitis in Ethiopia
where its magnitude is unknown. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine the magnitude of
GBS in infants with suspected meningitis.
Methods: Hospital based cross sectional study design was implemented for identification of GBS
in infants with suspected meningitis at Tikur Anbessa specialized hospital by using PCR
targeting cfb gene encoding the Christie-Atkinson-Munch-Peterson factor (CAMP) from June
2018 to October 2018. All the CSF samples were cultured on BHI, chocolate, blood agar plates
and MacConkey. Analysis was done using SPSS version 25.
Results: The CSF culture was found all negative. However, the magnitude of GBS was 63.9 %
(46/72) through cfb targeted PCR. Out of the 46 GBS positive infants, 10.9% (n=5) of them died.
The late onset of GBS (LOGBS) disease was noted to have poor outcome with 3 LOGBS out of
5 GBS positive deaths occurred. Outcome of infants were found related with onset disease.
Conclusion and recommendations: The cfb gene targeted PCR contributes a lot for identification
of GBS in culture negative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples and hence this more sensitive
technique needs to be conducted at least at the referral hospitals.
