BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES:
The diagnosis of bacterial meningitis remains a challenge to the clinician because of its rapid lethal course lacking the consistency to particular clinical signs and symptoms. Moreover, in many clinical settings use of rampant and short course antibiotic therapy prior to lumbar puncture reduces the chance of isolation of bacteria in CSF culture making the diagnosis difficult. The present study was done to evaluate a multiplex seminested PCR based method for rapid diagnosis of bacterial meningitis even after initiation of antibiotics.