Meningitis is an acute disease caused by an infection that affects the lining of the spinal cord and brain. This disease can affect people of any age. However, most often people at risk are infected with this infection - premature babies and patients who previously had back injuries, head injuries, or central nervous system lesions. Depending on the type of pathogen, meningitis happens: viral, bacterial, fungal. There are meningitis caused by protozoa. The most dangerous form of the disease is reactive meningitis (fulminant).
First signs of meningitis
Despite the current level of development of medical science, to this day, meningitis remains a disease that requires immediate medical attention.
For this reason, the first signs of meningitis, such as a sharp, very severe headache and too high sensitivity to light, should alert the doctor and his patient. Often along with such signs, spasm of the occipital muscles is observed. At the same time, the patient cannot reach his chest with his chin. The doctor’s attempt to bend a person’s head, as a rule, leads to sharp and severe pain and at the same time bending of the arms and legs.
The patient may also experience an increase in body temperature, a feeling of chills, aching joints, severe sweating, photophobia, high sensitivity to extraneous sounds, a change in consciousness that is accompanied by communication with fictional characters.
Timely treatment started gives a guarantee for a person's recovery. Therefore, if the first symptoms of the disease occur, you should immediately contact your doctors for help. Signs of meningitis in children deserve special attention , since they carry this infection much worse than adults.
Causes of the disease
Meningococcal bacillus is the main causative agent of meningitis. In addition to it, the causative agents of this disease can be enterovirus infection and some viruses. In addition, meningitis can develop as a complication after diseases such as mumps, measles, rubella. The risk group also includes patients with sinusitis or otitis media, suffering from abscesses or having boils in the neck and face.
Reactive mining is a dangerous form of the disease.
Often reactive mining is confused with a simple respiratory illness. Remember that the symptoms of this type of disease are fleeting. If treatment is not started in time, then literally in 1-3 days an adult can turn into a hopeless patient, and in a small child this happens during the day.
Reactive miningitis occurs with the following symptoms:
- body temperature about 40 degrees;
fever;
- severe sore throat;
- stiffness (tension, spasm) of the occipital muscles;
- severe nausea or its frequent attacks, vomiting;
- violations of the facial and oculomotor muscles;
- In some cases, partial paralysis or deafness may develop.
How to treat reactive meningitis?
Treatment of reactive meningitis should be started immediately and only in the inpatient department of the hospital! The doctor prescribes complex therapy, which includes taking corticosteroids and antibacterial drugs, as well as supporting procedures. A quick diagnosis and modern methods of medicine, as a rule, make it possible to cope with this dangerous infection: today the mortality from meningitis is only 10 percent.
Antibacterial therapy of reactive meningitis is based on the empirical prescription of drugs due to the fact that doctors are not always able to accurately and quickly determine the type of pathogen. The course of treatment with antibacterial agents depends on the characteristics of the course of the disease and the condition of the patient.