Monitoring

Meningitis, whether viral, bacterial or other is a notifiable disease and all cases must be reported to the relevant health authority. This is particularly important for cases of meningococcal meningitis, because N. meningitidis can cause disease outbreaks and epidemics. Disease surveillance is vital so that the epidemiology of infections can be characterised and the impact of vaccination programmes can be measured.

The European Union Invasive Bacterial Infections Surveillance Network (EU-IBIS) monitors incidences of bacterial meningitis across Europe. The aims of EU-IBIS are to:

collect epidemiological information on disease caused by H. influenzae and N. meningitidis in Europe
improve the ability of laboratories to characterise isolates of N. meningitidis and H. influenzae
evaluate the impact of vaccination with conjugate vaccines on the epidemiology of N. meningitidis and H. influenzae
compare the impact of vaccination with conjugate vaccines produced by different manufacturers and according to different schedules
encourage collaboration with non-EU countries.

Countries involved with EU-IBIS since 1999 are:

Austria
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
UK.

Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia have joined since 2004, and Australia and Israel now also contribute data.