Bacteriological study of meningococcal meningitis.

One hundred and thirty samples of cerebro spinal fluid were collected from patients admitted with suspected signs and symptoms of meningococcal meningitis (M. meningitis) during the period from January 1986 to April 1989 and were processed for gram's staining, cultivation and latex agglutination tests for detection of polysaccharide antigen in the CSF. Totally 41.5% of turbid and hazy spinal fluid were positive for N. meningitidis by smear examination. Only 24.6% were positive by culture but 61.5% of sample were positive by latex agglutination tests. All the strains were sensitive to all antibiotics except one strain which was resistant to penicillin but it was sensitive to rifampicin.