Streptococcus suis meningitis and neurophysiology of the acoustic system. First case report of Austria

Meningitis caused by Streptococcus suis was diagnosed in a 63 year old fema le in Austria. Sixteen months after onset she still suffers from ataxia, di sturbance of gait and bilateral hearing impairment. Being a farmer,the pati ent belongs to a recognized high-risk-group, as most other infected people do. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no report of a human infec tion by Streptococcus suis in Austria so far. The results of neurophysiolog ical tests excluded a direct lesion to the cochlea during the acute phase o f meningitis, and thus, are in contrast to the guinea-pig-model by Kay, who showed suppurative labyrinthitis being the cause of hearing loss. The pres ent knowledge of Streptococcus suis meningitis with respect to neurophysiol ogy, pathogenesis, epidemiology and increasing resistance against antibioti cs is discussed.