Society guideline links: Bacterial meningitis in adults

Introduction — This topic includes links to society and government-sponsored guidelines from selected countries and regions around the world. We will update these links periodically; newer versions of some guidelines may be available on each society's website. Some societies may require users to log in to access their guidelines.

The recommendations in the following guidelines may vary from those that appear in UpToDate topic reviews. Readers who are looking for UpToDate topic reviews should use the UpToDate search box to find the relevant content.

Links to related guidelines are provided separately. (See "Society guideline links: Meningococcal infection" and "Society guideline links: Bacterial meningitis in infants and children" and "Society guideline links: Travel medicine".)

International

●World Health Organization (WHO): Standard operating procedures for surveillance of meningitis preparedness and response to epidemics in Africa (2019)

●WHO: Managing meningitis epidemics in Africa – A quick reference guide for health authorities and healthcare workers (2015)

●WHO: Guideline on meningitis outbreak response in sub-Saharan Africa (2014)

Canada

●Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC): Invasive meningococcal disease (2023)

United States

●Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Clinical guidance for meningococcal disease – For health care providers

●CDC: Yellow Book 2024 – Health Information for International Travel: Meningococcal disease (published 2023)

●CDC: Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases ("The Pink Book") – Meningococcal disease (2021)

●Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA): Clinical practice guidelines for healthcare-associated ventriculitis and meningitis (2017)

●IDSA: Practice guidelines for the management of bacterial meningitis (ARCHIVED; 2004)

Europe

●European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID): Guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of acute bacterial meningitis (2016)

United Kingdom

●National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE): Meningitis (bacterial) and meningococcal disease – Recognition, diagnosis, and management (2024)

●British Infection Association (BIA): Early management of suspected meningitis and meningococcal sepsis in immunocompetent adults, 3rd edition (2016)

●The UK Joint Specialist Societies: Guideline on the diagnosis and management of acute meningitis and meningococcal sepsis in immunocompetent adults (2016)

Japan

●[In Japanese] Japanese Society of Neurology (JSN): Bacterial meningitis clinical practice guidelines, 2014 (published 2015)

●[In English] Japanese Society of Chemotherapy (JSC): Anaerobic infections (individual fields) – Central nervous system infections (brain abscess, subdural abscess, epidural abscess and bacterial meningitis) (2011)