Meningitis is a life-threatening disease that is not a joke. Everyone should know the signs of it, and also remember that many purulent and viral diseases can be complicated by the development of inflammation of the meninges. Therefore, you need to be treated on time, performing all the appointments of a doctor.
The causative agents of meningitis are many viruses, bacteria, some fungi and protozoa. The first cause a serous form of the disease, which is somewhat easier than purulent, which is caused by the second. Fungi can provoke a disease if the immunity is greatly reduced.
What can be the causative agents of meningitis and how do they get on the meninges?
1. Bacteria. There are a lot of them. Some of them are very aggressive, “fly” by airborne droplets, causing illness after the microbe from the nasopharynx reaches the brain. This is primary meningitis, and three bacteria are capable of provoking it: meningococcus, pneumococcus and hemophilus influenza.
In these cases, at first there is a slight malaise, a runny nose, as with SARS (the only difference is that a runny nose with white or yellow discharge from the nose). Then deterioration quickly develops, often a characteristic rash appears that does not disappear when glass is pressed on the spots, and other symptoms of meningitis appear .
The causative agents of secondary purulent meningitis are staphylococcus, pneumococcus, enterococcus, Escherichia coli, and many other microbes. They enter the lining of the brain from the ear, sinuses of the nose when they are inflamed, from foci such as phlegmon, boil, carbuncle. Bacteria carry blood with sepsis.
In these cases, at first a purulent disease develops, which has its own characteristic symptoms: pain, fever, purulent discharge. Only then (usually more than 7 days pass) do signs of meningitis appear.
2. Pathogens of serous meningitis. These are various viruses: influenza, chickenpox, enterovirus infection, rubella, shingles, mononucleosis and others.
They get to the person in all possible ways. The main one is airborne. So most viruses are transmitted, including those (they are called enteroviruses) that cause the notorious outbreaks of the disease in children's camps, kindergartens. Meningitis in Moscow, which has been talked about a lot recently, was also provoked by them.
When does meningitis occur?
To do this, you need several conditions:
- so that the microbe is quite aggressive;
- so that the human body is weakened by the disease or is not sufficiently "trained" (as happens in children);
- an even greater chance of “earning” meningitis when a person has a disease of the central nervous system: cysts in the brain, cerebral palsy, and so on.
That is, it is not always a microbe that can cause meningitis, it really causes it.
What is the most dangerous causative agent of meningitis?
Herpes viruses (cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, herpes simplex viruses of two types, chickenpox virus) cause the most severe course and consequences of the disease.
In the case of purulent meningitis, everyone is extremely dangerous, each in his own way. So, meningococcus can, among other things, penetrate the bloodstream and cause hemorrhages in the brain and internal organs. Pneumococcus, for example, is able to form a purulent "bonnet" on the brain, which makes it very difficult to cure.
Therefore, to find out exactly which causative agent of meningitis caused the disease, it is important not only in terms of which drugs are best used to treat it, but also regarding the prognosis of the course of the disease.