Published: December 28, 2007 10:17 am            

How to recognize meningitis

ATHENS, Ala. — Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges – the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are two types of meningitis – bacterial and viral.

Bacterial meningitis is rare but can cause brain damage, hearing loss, learning disability or death if not treated in time. Today, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitidis are the leading causes of bacterial meningitis.

Viral meningitis is more common and less serious. It often goes undiagnosed because its symptoms resemble those of common influenza.



Symptoms

• High fever – usually more than 103 degrees.

• Neck pain and stiffness in the back of the neck – not sore throat pain in the front of the neck. Stretching the back of the neck causes severe pain.

• Severe headache – not a typical headache. Extreme pain occurs because the infected lining of the brain gets severely inflamed.

• Vomiting - the irritation in the brain triggers persistent vomiting.

• Photophobia - light hurts the eyes. Severe irritability or lifelessness or both and refusal to open eyes and focus are signs of any severe infection, including meningitis.



Is it really meningitis?

If a child has all five symptoms go straight to the emergency room, according to Dr. William Sears, and Martha Sears, RN. The key to meningitis is the neck pain and stiffness. Additionally, fever is almost always present during meningitis. Headache, fever and vomiting, without neck pain or stiffness, probably just represent a bad influenza virus.

If the headache is very severe, fever and vomiting are present, but there is no neck stiffness or pain, you should call a doctor just to be cautious.

There is no way to diagnose meningitis without a spinal tap, in which a needle is inserted into an area in the lower back where fluid in the spinal canal is readily accessible.



Contracting and treating

Some forms of bacterial meningitis are contagious, according to the CDC. The bacteria are spread through the exchange of respiratory and throat secretions such as coughing or kissing. The bacteria that cause meningitis are not as contagious as things like the common cold or the flu, and they are not spread by casual contact or by simply breathing the air where a person with meningitis has been.

Appropriate antibiotic treatment of most common types of bacterial meningitis should reduce the risk of dying from meningitis to below 15 percent, although the risk is higher among the elderly.

There are two safe and highly effective vaccines that can prevent four types of meningococcal disease, including two of the three types most common in the United States.

Meningococcal vaccines cannot prevent all types of the disease. But they do protect many people who might become sick if they didn’t get the vaccine.



Jean Cole writes for The News Courier in Athens, Ala.

        

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