Background: Acute bacterial meningitis is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. It can be difficult to diagnose, as the symptoms and signs are often non-specific. Study Objective: To evaluate the performance of an in-house semi-nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay targeting the 16S rRNA gene of Eubacteria for the rapid diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis using cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens. Methods: A total of 112 CSF samples from 112 patients were used in the study. Among these, 32 samples were obtained from confirmed cases of Streptococcus pneumoniae , six samples were obtained from confirmed cases of Haemophilus influenzae , one sample from a confirmed case of Neisseria meningitidis , and 10 cases of clinically suspected acute bacterial meningitis. The remaining 63 CSF samples were obtained from patients with non-infectious illnesses (n = 47) of the central nervous system (CNS) and autopsy-confirmed tuberculous meningitis (n = 16). Results: The assay had an overall sensitivity of 93% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.81–0.98, negative predictive value=95%) and a specificity of 98% (95% CI 0.92–1.0, positive predictive value=98%). Conclusion: These preliminary findings suggest that the semi-nested PCR assay targeting the 16S rRNA gene may be used as a rapid test for the diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis.
