Meningitis is an acute illness that is not always contagious. The essence of the disease lies in inflammatory changes in the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. A person suffers from intoxication, severe headache, as well as phenomena associated with increased intracranial pressure and cerebral edema. If inflammation affects not only the membranes, but also the substance of the brain, then the disease may be called "encephalitis" or "meningoencephalitis".
Meningitis is a life-threatening disease. In this case, an accurate diagnosis can only be made on the basis of a lumbar puncture (lumbar puncture); other research methods at a time when the salvation of a person depends on how quickly he seeks qualified help are not informative. Some visible changes on a computer or magnetic resonance tomogram will be visible only after 2 weeks from the onset of the disease; An ultrasound or X-ray cannot show meningitis at all.
What are the types of meningitis?
According to the type of pathogen that provoked the disease, acute meningitis can be bacterial, viral, fungalor caused by protozoa. By the nature of inflammatory changes in the cerebrospinal fluid - serous and purulent. Moreover, the cause of purulent meningitis in almost 100% of cases is a bacterium that is able to penetrate the protective cellular barriers that protect the brain. Serous meningitis can also be caused by viruses (there are a very large number of them, including varicella, rubella and measles viruses), and some bacteria (leptospira, Koch's bacillus), and fungi.
The result of the analysis of which microbe caused the disease, in the case of purulent meningitis, is obtained after 3-5 days by bacteriological seeding of cerebrospinal fluid on nutrient media, but in the case of serous meningitis, it takes much longer. But the most life-threatening ones - Epstein-Barr virus, herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus (specific treatment has been developed only against them) - can be determined by PCR within 2 days.
How does meningitis manifest?
Whether meningitis is serous or purulent, the symptoms are:
- headache in the parietal or other area, in the whole head, aggravated in an upright position, when turning and tilting the head, loud sounds and bright light; it is poorly removed by painkillers;
- increased body temperature;
- it becomes easier for a person to lie down, often he takes a pose on his side with his knees tucked to his chest;
- nausea, vomiting, which do not depend on food intake, while vomit maycontain both food eaten the day before and an admixture of bile, and if meningitis is caused by meningococcus, then vomit may contain streaks of brown blood. It doesn't get better after vomiting;
- discomfort in the eyes when looking at a bright light;
- weakness, drowsiness;
- the impossibility of lying down to get the chin to the sternum (at the same time, it often also pulls the back very much);
- touching the skin is felt several times stronger and causes discomfort;
- convulsions with loss of consciousness against a background of elevated body temperature (but in children under 6 years of age, convulsions against a background of a temperature not higher than 38.5 may indicate a disease, since if they occur at a higher temperature, then this is not necessary meningitis, this may just be a sign of immaturity of the nervous system);
- a rash of any nature that does not itch and arose against a background of elevated body temperature.
These symptoms with purulent meningitis appear either immediately, or against the background of inadequate treatment (or refusal of treatment) otitis, sinusitis, runny nose with the release of purulent mucus, frontal sinusitis. The signs of serous meningitis are the same, only they usually appear after a person complains of sore throat, runny nose, scratchy throat, slight cough, mild diarrhea, conjunctivitis for some time.
