Tuberculosis meningitis in adults: 5 cases

Tuberculosis still represents a problem of public health of worldwide importance. Tuberculosis meningitis is a rare yet serious infectious disease. The diagnosis is mainly clinical and should be considered in a specific epidemiological context. Culture of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from cerebrospinal fluid is required for definitive diagnosis but it cannot always be obtained. In this study we report five cases of tuberculosis meningitis admitted to our Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases over the last six years, highlighting the main aspects that steered us towards diagnosis and the difficulties we encountered.