Molecular Identification of Viral Infections in CSF Samples from Patients with Bacterial Meningitis

Abstract

The possibility of coinfection in patients with bacterial meningitis is of high clinical relevance due to the increased mortality rate associated with higher viral load numbers. In this case, human herpesviruses (HHV) are relevant due to their high contagiousness and ability to establish persistent infections. Therefore, this study aims to detect HHV in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from patients with bacterial meningitis, seeking to understand the clinical impacts of coinfection. Thus, CSF samples, which were collected from patients who presented symptoms of neurological infections and positive exam for bacterial culture, will be analyzed through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and nested-PCR (nPCR), and the results obtained will be contrasted with the clinical condition of the patients. It is expected to get a positive correlation between the worsening of the clinical condition of the patients and herpesvirus coinfection.