[Rapid diagnosis of epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis by co-agglutination].

Group A meningococcus polysaccharide antigen from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), serum and urine were detected by Co-agglutination (COA) method. In total 478 samples, CSF, sear and urines 195, 214, and 69 samples were detected respectively. COA positive rate of CSF were 81.2%, serum were 64.6% and urine were 50%, in the patients from whom group A bacteria were isolated, but the samples from which group B meningococcus, pneumococcus or other isolates positive showed negative in COA. A good sensitivity and specificity of COA method have been proved in this paper. The advantages of COA method were rapid, simple and could be easily performed in ordinary laboratory conditions.