Meningitis is an inflammatory process that develops in the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord. This inflammation is triggered by an infection - a virus, a bacterium, a fungus, a protozoan, which can get through the barrier that protects the brain and its membranes from harmful effects. Decreased human immunity, childhood and chronic problems that affect the brain itself (for example, cerebral atherosclerosis or hydrocephalus) strongly contribute to the development of a disease such as meningitis. Signs of the disease should be known to every adult.
Where does disease come from?
1. Bacterial meningitis is sometimes primary, when the bacterium, having entered the body by airborne droplets, overcomes some path to get to the meninges, while not causing inflammation anywhere except the nasopharynx. Meningococci, pneumococci and Haemophilus influenzae “can” do this. And it is in these cases that you can get infected from a patient with meningitis (and then almost always only with a meningococcal infection and only until the moment when a person starts to inject antibiotics).
More common is secondary bacterial meningitis,signs of the disease that appear:
- after a penetrating wound to the skull;
- a few days after the onset of otitis media, rhinitis, pneumonia, sinusitis, frontal sinusitis, the appearance of a boil or carbuncle on the head;
- with sepsis, when a bacterium from the blood spreads throughout the body, including the brain.
So if you have frequent problems with your throat or ears, or if you constantly leak cerebrospinal fluid through your ear or nose, you are especially at risk of contracting meningitis. Do not put up with the current situation. The way out here is to do an MRI of the brain and come for a consultation with an operating neurosurgeon or an ENT doctor. It often turns out that it is possible to reconstruct a defect in the skull bone and then forget about permanent illnesses.
2. Viral meningitis develops when the virus enters the body through airborne droplets, sexual contact, through dirty hands, common dishes, kissing, contact with the contents of the rash on the clean skin of another person, and even through the placenta. These can be viruses like polio (enteroviruses), measles, rubella, herpes, infectious mononucleosis, chickenpox, mumps, influenza.
This kind of meningitis is not contracted directly from a patient with meningitis. It may just happen that everyone eats food that has such a virus. Or a sick person comes to the team and actively (with sneezing, talking and coughing) spreads the virus further. Then a few people who interacted or ate unprocessed foodfall ill with meningitis (this is how outbreaks occur in kindergartens and pioneer camps).
How does meningitis start?
It takes several days from the moment a microbe enters the human body before the disease begins. So, signs of infectious meningitis (that is, caused by the bacterium meningococcus) usually develop on the 2-7th day from the moment of infection. The symptoms of meningitis can be preceded by pain and sore throat, the release of initially not transparent mucous membranes, but white or yellowish snot. Then meningitis appears (signs of the disease are not so difficult to notice for an experienced doctor).
With viral meningitis, there is also a short period of prodromal phenomena. They resemble SARS (cough, malaise, fever, runny nose), but if meningitis has become a complication of viral diseases, they can manifest as measles, chickenpox, rubella, mumps or mononucleosis.
Meningitis: signs of the disease
The body temperature rises, a severe headache of a diffuse character appears. These are the two main symptoms of meningitis.
- The temperature does not always rise to very high numbers, meningitis can also occur at 37, 4-37, 8 degrees.
- Headache is felt in the temples or in the whole head (less often - another localization). She is first removed by painkillers, then stops responding to them. It is this pain that makes a person lie, and most often on his side, pulling his knees up to his chest (there is less tension on the inflamed membrane of the brain). It intensifies with loudsounds and bright lights.
- Nausea and vomiting that does not bring relief and is not associated with eating. This disease is not accompanied by diarrhea, which is the main difference from food poisoning.
- Dizziness.
- Increased sensitivity of the skin all over the body, when normal touch causes significant discomfort.
- Lethargy, drowsiness.
- Convulsions in adults against the background of any temperature, in children - against the background of a temperature below 38 degrees.
- Rash: similar to measles or rubella when meningitis is a complication of these diseases. For meningococcal and some other infections, which are often complicated by meningitis, the appearance of dark spots is characteristic. They appear first on the buttocks, then on the legs and arms, last on the body, and may not appear on the face at all. The peculiarity of this rash is that it does not itch, does not disappear and does not turn pale if the skin is stretched under it or pressed on the skin with a glass (glass test). These are hemorrhages, and the danger is that exactly the same elements appear in all internal organs and even in the heart and kidneys. Death can occur not from meningitis as such, but from hemorrhage in the adrenal glands. Therefore, if you see such a rash, call an ambulance, even if there are no other symptoms yet.
