RESUMO
Acute bacterial meningitis has its unique and specific clinical presentation and it has been recognized and described since the earliest days of medicine the purpose of this work was to study the effect of tonsillectomy on the carrier rate of meningococcal meningitis among students aged 6-15 years, as well as to access IgA level in the nasopharyngeal secretion and diagnosis of meningococcal serotypes. These goals were achieved through a survey conducted on 750 children belonging to public and private schools located in the Eastern Zone of Cairo. Follow-up for 580 students was carried out for a period of 20 months. Analysis of the collected data revealed the following 1- The meningococcal carrier rate among the examined students was 10.4%. 2-The results revealed a relation between the history of tonsillectomy and the carrier rate, as the carrier rate was 14.7% among the tonsillectomized students compared to 9.1% of non-tonisllectomized children, and this difference was statistically significant. This relation appeared clearly in the results of the follow-up study as the carrier rate was 36.8% among tonsillectomized group compared to 6.2% among the control group. 3- Estimation of IgA level in the nasopharyngeal secretion revealed that the pre-exisiting mean IgA antibody titre in the nasopharynx declined in all students studied 3 months after tonsillectomy. This difference was statistically significant. 4- The serological classification of the isolated meningococci revealed that the higher serogroup percentage [about 41%] belonged to group A, followed by 26.9% for group C and the lowest percentages [8% and 5.1%] belonged to group B and D, respectively