[Severe courses of meningitis and encephalitis in children and adolescents]. / Schwer verlaufende Meningitis und Enzephalitis bei Kindern und Jugendlichen.

Bacterial meningitis and viral encephalitis are infectious diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), mostly with severe sequelae up to a fatal outcome. Despite progress in prevention by vaccination, the global impact of bacterial meningitis is enormous. Before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the incidence of viral encephalitis in childhood was increasing also due to the growing incidence of emerging pathogens, such as enterovirus (EV)-A71 and West Nile virus in temperate climates as well as the wider use of immunosuppressive treatment and stem cell transplantation in childhood. The following article summarizes the data on the frequency and clinical signs of infectious CNS diseases and presents the current treatment recommendations.