Everyone has heard that there is such a disease as meningitis. Some associate its appearance purely with hypothermia (especially the head) or with infection by airborne droplets. Is it so? How can I get sick, consider below.
Types of Meningitis
The disease can be caused by bacteria, viruses, rarely - protozoa. It is possible to establish an accurate diagnosis and identify the microbe that caused the disease only with the help of a lumbar puncture. In this case, an hour after its capture, it will be presumably known, purulent or serous meningitis .
Purulent process is caused in 99% of cases by bacteria; if serous meningitis, symptoms in children can occur due to penetration into the body, and then on the membrane of the brain of some specific bacteria, a huge number of viruses, fungi.
The mechanism by which a virus enters the body
Viruses that cause serous meningitis (symptoms in children are usually severe) penetrate the body in various ways. Sometimes this process occurs after a short time, immediately after minor manifestations of SARS. In some cases, meningitis can be a complication of other viral diseases (usually measles, chickenpox, rubella).
Viruses enter the body in the following ways:
- airborne droplets: herpes viruses, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, rubella, measles, mumps, chicken pox, enteroviruses, SARS group;
- sexually: herpes simplex virus;
- through the placenta or in childbirth: herpes simplex virus;
- when using insufficiently thermally processed foods and through dirty hands: enteroviruses;
- when the contents of the vesicles get on the wounds on the skin: herpes simplex viruses.
Serous meningitis can be caused by specific bacteria. They also enter the body in a variety of ways: for example, mycobacterium tuberculosis penetrates by airborne droplets, and leptospira from infected murine, rat feces through wounds on the skin.
Serous meningitis: symptoms in children
After infection, some time passes (usually about a week), then the symptoms of a viral disease appear:
- cough, runny nose, conjunctivitis, perspiration and sore throat - if the disease is caused by one of the enteroviruses or a microbe from the ARVI group;
- increased body temperature - when any of the viruses gets in;
- rash - characteristic of chickenpox, herpes simplex, herpes zoster , measles, rubella, only in each case the elements of the rash will be different;
- sore throat, an increase in a large number of lymph nodes - with Epstein-Barr virus or cytomegalovirus.
If serous meningitis is caused by leptospira or tubercle bacillus, there will first be symptoms of these diseases. Then, after a few days, if the virus has overcome the defense of the brain, serous meningitis develops. Symptoms in children appear as follows:
- body temperature rises to higher rates, it becomes difficult to bring down;
- the head begins to hurt greatly: this pain often does not have a certain localization, increases in the sitting and standing position (lying easier), as well as with loud sounds and bright light;
- nausea and vomiting;
- weakness, drowsiness up to the state when the child becomes impossible to wake up;
- there may be seizures with loss of consciousness (this is characteristic of herpetic meningitis, which is very life-threatening);
- inadequacy, delirium, hallucinations;
- Enterovirus meningitis is characterized by a reddish, small-spotted rash throughout the body.
If meningitis has developed in a very young child, bulging large fontanel, monotonous crying is noted, the baby resists being picked up.
Diagnosis of Meningitis
The diagnosis can be made only by the results of lumbar puncture. This is not such a dangerous manipulation, for it does not need to pierce the spinal cord. But the benefits of it are beyond doubt:
- after it becomes easier, since the pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid decreases;
- only on the basis of this analysis it is possible to distinguish viral meningitis from purulent immediately, and later to obtain the full result of a bacteriological or virological study, thanks to which it will be clear what the pathogen is called and how it can be killed;
- determine the initial therapy, which can be selected based on a comparison of the severity of the condition and the level of inflammation, which is determined in the cerebrospinal fluid.
How to protect yourself from meningitis?
- comply with the rules of personal hygiene;
- instill in the child an understanding that it is not necessary to communicate with a coughing or sneezing person;
- take a habit of adults in the family with signs of a cold wearing a mask;
- use only boiled or bottled water, boiled milk;
- it is advisable to be examined for a TORCH group before pregnancy, and during it to protect yourself from colds in every possible way, dress according to the weather, wash your hands before eating and after traveling in transport.
Vaccinations for serous meningitis do not currently exist.