Footnotes

• Contributors KP: conceived the idea for the study, collected and analysed the data and wrote the first draft of the paper, edited the draft manuscript and approved the final version. WTW: analysed the data and wrote subsequent drafts of the paper, edited the draft manuscript and approved the final version. CH: collected the data, edited the draft manuscript and approved the final version. PH: collected the data, edited the draft manuscript and approved the final version. JB: collected the data, edited the draft manuscript and approved the final version. MH: collected the data, edited the draft manuscript and approved the final version. AF: collected the data, edited the draft manuscript and approved the final version. MG-C: analysed the imaging data, edited the draft manuscript and approved the final version. FJK: supervised KP and WTW in analysing the data and writing draft manuscripts, edited the draft manuscript and approved the final version. As corresponding author she acts as guarantor for the data. SNF supervised KP and WTW in analysing the data and writing the draft manuscript, edited the draft manuscript and approved the final version. As senior author he acts as guarantor for the data.

• Funding SNF and WTW received funding from the Southampton NIHR Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility.

• Competing interests None.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

• Data sharing statement Anonymised data are available as an excel spreadsheet to authors looking at outcome for pneumococcal meningitis with respect to clinical features.