The term "serous meningitis" means that in the cerebrospinal fluid, that is, the patient's cerebrospinal fluid, a picture of inflammation is observed with the predominance of cells such as lymphocytes. This situation arises when the protective barriers surrounding the brain and its membranes become passable for microbes, which can cause just this type of inflammatory reaction.
Causes of Serous Meningitis
1) Viruses: herpes simplex, cytomegalovirus, chickenpox virus, Coxsackie and ECHO enteroviruses, Epstein-Barr virus, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella, tick-borne encephalitis, influenza and some others. This cause of serous meningitis is the most common.
2) Specific bacteria: tubercle bacillus, causative agent of syphilis, leptospirosis.
3) Fungal flora, for example, cryptococci. These causes of serous meningitis appear mainly with a decrease in immunity, for example, due to HIV infection (less often due to chemotherapy or a long-term serious illness), since an organism with a normal protective system will prevent the fungus from entering the brain membranes.
How can acute serous meningitis be “acquired” ?
Viruses and bacteria enter the body in the following ways:
1) Airborne. So the majority of viruses are transmitted: measles, rubella, mumps, chickenpox, viruses from the SARS group. Tuberculosis bacillus also “flies” through the air, but it enters the membrane of the brain from a focus in the lungs, less often from another accumulation of these bacteria.
2) Through unwashed hands, insufficiently thermally processed food (especially dairy products) and water (which is drunk or in which they bathe and swallow). So you can "get" enteroviruses and some other pathogens.
3) Through wounds on the skin and microcracks. So leptospira penetrates to a person, treponema (causative agent of syphilis).
4) Through the bites of insects or arthropods. This is how tick-borne encephalitis virus enters , as well as some other viruses, which, fortunately, are almost not found in our region.
There are viruses that cause serous meningitis that have multiple transmission routes. These are herpes simplex viruses, as well as his “colleagues” - cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr viruses. They can be infected by contact (when the contents of the bubbles get on the skin of another person), by airborne droplets, through kisses, sexually, by transfusion of blood from the carrier to someone who still does not have the virus (these are usually children, since adults are almost completely infected with the herpes virus). They can also get to the developing fetus during pregnancy if the mother either during this period only became infected or the baby was born through the birth canal during an exacerbation of the herpes virus infection on the genital tract.
Serous Meningitis Prevention
Knowing the causes of serous meningitis, it is possible to some extent to prevent its occurrence. How to do it?
- Preventive vaccinations. Routine vaccination protects against measles, rubella, mumps, polio, enterovirus infections: if a child becomes ill with one of these diseases, then she transfers it more easily, and the likelihood of a complication such as meningitis also decreases.
- Compliance with hygiene rules: washing hands before eating and after the toilet, using personal dishes and towels in the children's team.
- Drinking only boiled water and milk. Do not consume expired products (especially lactic acid).
- To teach a child not to swallow water while swimming, since most meningitis is brought from the sea, and it is children and adolescents.
- Teach the child not to communicate with people who cough, sneeze, have a stuffy nose, or, conversely, have lacrimation or runny nose. It is also necessary in families to acquire the habit of sick adults to wear a mask, also not to communicate closely and not to kiss their child at the slightest sign of herpes infection (“colds” on the lips or near the nose).
- If there are friends of children who have suffered an infectious mononucleosis, you should not communicate closely with them for a long time: the virus is secreted with saliva up to a year and a half from the moment of the disease.
- Although the causes of serous meningitis are known and it is 100% impossible to prevent their ingestion, you can try to get used to a healthy lifestyle from childhood and temper, so that even after reaching a person, the microbe cannot penetrate the shells of his brain.