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ADC Fetal and Neonatal Edition Letters and ADC Education and Practice Letters
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Meningitis and Learning
- Suellen Gifford, Judy Davies, Doctor Amanda Kirby (Patron) (26 March 2007)
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Would be even more useful if broken down by organism
- Peter M B English (24 October 2007)
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Suellen Gifford, Mother New Zealand Dyspraxia Society, Judy Davies, Doctor Amanda Kirby (Patron)
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suellen{at}clear.net.nz Suellen Gifford, et al.
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Dear Editor, Fantastic that this research is being made but the association of learning disability and meningitis has long been recognised through the Dyspraxia society worldwide. Judy Davies, co-ordinator of the New Zealand Dyspraxia society has spoken at many public meetings and always acknowledges meningitis in infants as one of the prime causes. With a reader/writer for exams and computer assistance and a lot of patience from parents some of these children can pass exams. Dyspraxia is called the hidden handicap - its not a physical deformity and therefore is much harder to recognise. Please continue with the research... as parents we need more medial backup to increase educational support for these children. They are often seen as being lazy... this is not the case. My son can only hand write a 1/4 of the speed needed to pass exams...there are probably lots more like him! |
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Peter M B English, Consultant in Communicable Disease Control Health Protection Agency
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peter.english{at}shpu.nhs.uk Peter M B English
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The article by de Louvois et al is very useful in quantifying the long-term effects on achievement of meningitis.1 It adds to their previous work,2, 3 and will be much appreciated by those advising parents of infants who have, or have had, bacterial meningitis; and it should also be useful to those planning for their education and longer-term health care. I suspect that the reason why little evidence is presented regarding the difference between the effects of different bacterial causes of meningitis is because the study was not sufficiently powerful to provide meaningful results. As a Consultant in Communicable Disease Control I was interested to note the signficance of E coli and other "coliform" infections, as all meningitis is "notifiable",4 but my impression is that we see relatively few such cases notified. In contrast, pneumococcal meningitis these is well established (by some of these authors among others) as being more likely to have serious sequelae than other bacterial meningitides, so its mention in the results section did not surprise me. I recognise that it might not be possible to break down the outcomes by organism, as was done with the same cohort at five years after infection;2 but it would be even more useful if these data could be made available. Peter English. References: 1. de Louvois J, Harvey D, Halket S. The effect of meningitis in infancy on school-leaving examination results. Arch Dis Child 2007:adc.2006.105916 (http://adc.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/adc.2006.105916v1). 2. Bedford H, de Louvois J, Halket S, Peckham C, Hurley R, Harvey D. Meningitis in infancy in England and Wales: follow up at age 5 years. BMJ 2001;323(7312):533- (http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/323/7312/533). 3. Baraff LJ, Lee SI, Schriger DL. Outcomes of bacterial meningitis in children: a meta-analysis. Pediatr Infect Dis J 1993;12(5):389-94. 4. Health Protection Agency. Notifications of Infectious Diseases (NOIDs). 2007;Accessed: 2007(24 October)(http://www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/noids/menu.htm). |
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