Guidelines
Acute Bacterial Meningitis

Acute Bacterial Meningitis

  • Acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) is a medical emergency
  • Listeria monocytogenes can cause meningitis in the following populations: >50 years of age, pregnancy, immunocompromised
  • Empiric antibiotic therapy should be started once the diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis is suspected. Duration of therapy will depend on etiology

First Steps

Droplet Precautions

Initiate droplet precautions for the first 24hrs of effective antibiotic therapy

Collect blood culture and start empiric antibiotic therapy

More Information

(a) Tunkel et al. CID 2004:39 (b) McGill F, et al., J Infect 2016 (c) Hasbun R et al. N Engl J Med 2001

Guideline adapted from Providence Health Care