Meningitis is a life-threatening disease that is no joke. Everyone should know its signs, and also remember that many both purulent and viral diseases can be complicated by the development of inflammation of the meninges. Therefore, you need to be treated on time, following all the doctor's prescriptions.
The causative agents of meningitis are many viruses, bacteria, some fungi and protozoa. The former cause a serous type of disease, which is somewhat easier than purulent, which is caused by the latter. Mushrooms can provoke a disease if immunity is greatly reduced.
What can be the causative agents of meningitis and how do they get to the meninges?
1. bacteria. There are a lot of them. Some of them are very aggressive, “arrive” by airborne droplets, causing illness after the microbe from the nasopharynx reaches the brain. This is primary meningitis, and three bacteria can cause it: meningococcus, pneumococcus, and hemophilus influenzae.
In these cases, at first there is a slight malaise, a runny nose, as in SARS (the only difference is that a runny nose with white or yellowish discharge from the nose). Then the deterioration of the condition quickly develops, often a characteristic rash appears, which does notdisappears when pressure is applied to stains with glass, and other symptoms of meningitis appear.
The causative agents of secondary purulent meningitis are staphylococcus aureus, pneumococcus, enterococcus, E. coli, and many other microbes. They get to the membrane of the brain from the ear, sinuses when they become inflamed, from such foci as phlegmon, furuncle, carbuncle. Bacteria are carried in the blood during sepsis.
In these cases, a purulent disease first develops, which has its own characteristic symptoms: pain, fever, purulent discharge. Only then (usually more than 7 days pass) do signs of meningitis appear.
2. Causative agents of meningitis serous. These are various viruses: influenza, chickenpox, enterovirus infection, rubella, shingles, mononucleosis and others.
They get to the person in all possible ways. The main one is airborne. This is how most viruses are transmitted, including those (they are called enteroviruses) that cause notorious outbreaks of the disease in children's camps and kindergartens. Meningitis in Moscow, which was recently talked about a lot, was also provoked by them.
When does meningitis occur?
This requires several conditions:
- for the microbe to be aggressive enough;
- so that the human body is weakened by the disease or not “trained” enough (as happens in children);
- an even greater chance of "earning" meningitis when a person has a disease of the central nervous system: cysts in the brain, cerebral palsy, and so on.
That is, not always a microbe that can cause meningitis does cause it.
What is the most dangerous causative agent of meningitis?
Viruses of the herpes group (cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, herpes simplex viruses of two types, chickenpox virus) cause the most severe course and consequences of the disease.
In the case of purulent meningitis, everyone is extremely dangerous, each in his own way. So, meningococcus can, among other things, also penetrate into the bloodstream and cause hemorrhages both in the brain and in internal organs. Pneumococcus, for example, is able to form a purulent "cap" on the brain, which makes it very difficult to cure it.
Therefore, it is important to find out which particular causative agent of meningitis caused the disease, not only in terms of what drugs are best to treat it, but also regarding the prognosis of the course of the disease.
