Meningitis and language problems

Anne Wiltsher
Wednesday, February 6, 2002

Childcarers and teachers need to be aware that children who have had meningitis in their first year of life may have difficulties with language and literacy later on. Simple education interventions may help compensate for these deficits. Until now there have been few studies of the long-term complications of meningitis, but new research on 1,717 five-year-old children in England and Wales, who survived an acute attack between 1985 and 1987, sheds new light. Researchers at the Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Institute of Child Health, London, carried out the study.