Society guideline links: Bacterial meningitis in infants and children

Introduction — 

This topic includes links to society and government-sponsored guidelines from selected countries and regions around the world. We will update these links periodically; newer versions of some guidelines may be available on each society's website. Some societies may require users to log in to access their guidelines.

The recommendations in the following guidelines may vary from those that appear in UpToDate topic reviews. Readers who are looking for UpToDate topic reviews should use the UpToDate search box to find the relevant content.

Links to related guidelines are provided separately:

●(See "Society guideline links: Bacterial meningitis in adults".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Prevention of meningococcal disease".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Meningococcal disease".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Travel medicine".)

International

●World Health Organization (WHO): Guideline on meningitis outbreak response in sub-Saharan Africa (2014)

Canada

●Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS): Guidelines for the management of suspected and confirmed bacterial meningitis in Canadian children older than 2 months of age (2020)

United States

●Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP): Meningococcal vaccine recommendations

●Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Clinical guidance for meningococcal disease – For health care providers

●American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): Red Book

•Meningococcal infections, update (2025)

•Group B streptococcal infections (2024)

•Haemophilus influenzae infections (2024)

•Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcal) infections (2024)

●CDC: Yellow Book 2024 – Health Information for International Travel: Meningococcal disease (published 2023)

●CDC: Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases ("The Pink Book") – Meningococcal disease (2021)

●Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA): Clinical practice guidelines for healthcare-associated ventriculitis and meningitis (2017)

●IDSA: Practice guidelines for the management of bacterial meningitis (ARCHIVED; 2004)

Europe

●European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID): Guideline for diagnosis and treatment of acute bacterial meningitis (2016)

●European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS): Guideline on the management of community-acquired bacterial meningitis – Report of an EFNS Task Force on acute bacterial meningitis in older children and adults (2008)

United Kingdom

●National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE): Guideline on meningitis (bacterial) and meningococcal disease – Recognition, diagnosis, and management (2024)

●NICE: Quality standard on meningitis (bacterial) and meningococcal disease (2012, updated 2024)

●UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA): Meningococcal disease – Guidance, data, and analysis (2014, updated 2024)

●UKHSA: The Green Book – Immunisation against infectious disease: Meningococcal (2013, updated 2022)

Australia–New Zealand

●Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI): The Australian Immunisation Handbook – Meningococcal disease

Japan

●[In Japanese] Japanese Society of Neurology (JSN), Japanese Society of Neurological Therapeutics (JSNT), and Japanese Society of Neuroinfectious Diseases: Bacterial meningitis treatment guidelines (2014)