Meningitis and encephalitis in Poland in 2021.

2021 showed an overall upward trend in the number of recorded cases of bacterial meningitis and/or encephalitis, and a slight decrease in the number of viral meningitis and/or encephalitis cases compared to 2020. Still, the observed number of meningitis and/or encephalitis cases in 2021, both bacterial and viral incidences, remains below the levels observed in the pre-pandemic COVID-19 period (2019). As a result of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, the introduction of measures to limit the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been observed to reduce the spread of other droplet- and airborne pathogens, thus also pathogens such as S. pneumoniae, H.influenzae and N. menningitidis.