San José, Costa Rica, 20 August 2026 – Approximately 25 representatives and experts from seven countries participated in a subregional workshop organized by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to strengthen epidemiological and laboratory surveillance of bacterial meningitis. Meningitis caused an estimated 5,000 deaths in the Americas in 2021, one-third among children under 5, and approximately one in four survivors experience permanent sequelae. The emergence of antimicrobial resistance in meningococcus to antibiotics used for treatment and prophylaxis further underscores the need for timely laboratory confirmation and integrated epidemiological, laboratory, and antimicrobial resistance surveillance.
The workshop reviewed the surveillance pathway from case detection and specimen collection through laboratory confirmation, data integration, and use of results for public health action. Participants identified shared priorities and agreed on next steps for a 2026–2027 subregional roadmap, including laboratory capacity-building, stronger information systems, updated protocols, and improved outbreak detection and response. The activity was conducted within the framework of WHO’s Defeating Meningitis by 2030: A Global Road Map and PAHO’s Disease Elimination Initiative: A Policy for an Integrated Sustainable Approach to Communicable Diseases in the Americas. It also advances work toward the objectives of PAHO’s Strategy and Plan of Action to Decrease the Burden of Sepsis through an Integrated Approach 2025–2029, particularly by strengthening the early detection, diagnosis, surveillance, and response to severe bacterial infections.
The activity was conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Costa Rica, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Costa Rica’s Instituto Costarricense de Investigación y Enseñanza en Nutrición y Salud (INCIENSA), whose National Reference Center for Bacteriology serves as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance.
