Objective: Central nervous system (CNS) infections require rapid diagnosis because of their rapid progression to death or severe permanent sequelae. The aim of this study is to demonstrate retrospectively, the distribution of viral and bacterial agents detected by multiplex real-time PCR method in CSF samples in terms of patients’ age and season of the infection.

Material and Methods: CSF samples of 200 patients which were sent to the molecular microbiology unit of our hospital with suspect meningitis were investigated in this study. Specimens were tested using multiplex real-time PCR assay for adenovirus (AdV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), enteroviruses (EV), Epstein- Barr virus (EBV), herpes simplex virus 1 and 2 (HSV), human herpes virus 6 and 7, human parechovirus, parvovirus B19, varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and among the bacterial pathogens Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria meningitidis and Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Results: A bacterial or a viral agent was detected in 50 (25%) of the 200 samples analyzed in the study. Among positive samples most frequently (6.5%) enterovirus was detected, followed by adenovirus and HSV-1 (5%), and S. pneumoniae (3.5%). The highest rate of positivity was detected within age bracket of 0-5 years. Bacterial positivity was detected in 9 patients. The two viral coinfections were seen in 2 (1%) patients.

Conclusion: Early diagnosis and treatment of meningitis are very important to reduce mortality and morbidity. Early detection of the responsible agents may be possible with molecular methods, such as PCR. Multiplex PCR method is an easy and rapid test and it is considered that as the relevant studies increase in number, it will enrich the epidemiologically valuable data.