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Background: Meningitis is the inflammation of the meninges and its outcome varies between etiologies. It is an endemic disease in Brazil with mandatory notification. Objectives: To analyze the number of diagnoses and outcomes of meningitis in Rio Grande do Sul (RS) in the 2019-2020 biennium. Design and setting: Cross-sectional epidemiological study using DATASUS database. Methods: Data from notified diagnosed meningitis in RS from 2019 to 2020 were included. The meningitis etiology was correlated with its outcome. Results: There was a 70% reduction in the absolute number of reported diagnoses of meningitis in the year 2020 (302) compared to 2019 (1,000). The most prevalent specified cause, in both years, was “viral meningitis”, corresponding to 29.9% in 2019 and 27.1% in 2020. There was no great variation in the incidence of etiologies from one year to another. Mortality was the outcome of 7% of patients in 2020 and 6.6% in 2019. Pneumococcus was the most related etiology to “death from meningitis”, responsible for 38% in 2020 and 28.7% in 2019. Conclusions: The number of meningitis diagnoses in RS fell from 2019 to 2020. The fall may be related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides that, even with the reduction in the number of diagnoses, mortality had increased. |
