Bacterial meningitis is a severe infectious disease of the membranes lining the brain
resulting in a high mortality and morbidity throughout the world. In the past decades the
epidemiology and treatment strategies for community-acquired bacterial meningitis have
significantly changed [1–3]. First, the introduction of conjugate vaccines in Europe resulted
in the virtual disappearance of Haemophilus influenzae type b, while conjugate
pneumococcal and meningococcal vaccines have substantially reduced the burden of …