Nosocomial outbreak of neonatal Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis meningitis in a rural hospital in northern Tanzania.

Background: Clinicians at Haydom Lutheran Hospital, a rural hospital in northern Tanzania noted an unusually high case-fatality rate of pediatric meningitis and suspected an outbreak of an unknown agent or an organism resistant to the empirical therapy.

Methods: We established a provisional microbiology laboratory to investigate the suspected outbreak. Blood and spinal fluid specimens were taken from children below the age of seven years with suspected meningitis.