Today, mankind knows a huge number of serious diseases, the treatment of which is either very difficult or impossible at all. Unfortunately, meningitis also applies to them, if you do not start therapy in a timely manner. In the initial stages, treatment of meningitis is a fairly simple event, but if you just “start” the disease a little, then terrible complications will not keep you waiting.
So what is meningitis?
This is an infectious disease characterized by inflammation of the hard or soft membranes of both the brain and spinal cord. There are several varieties of the disease, among which there is a classification according to the etiological basis: bacterial, viral meningitis, fungal, as well as mixed and meningitis of another etiology.
Parents very often scare their children by saying that if you don’t put on a hat or go for a walk with your head wet in cold weather, you will definitely get meningitis. This is partly true. Of course, not the cold itself is the cause of the disease. Low temperature just pushes pathogens to make the disease begin to develop, interfering with the immune system to prevent the spread of infection. But this is not the main cause of the disease. First of all, it should be remembered that you can get infected with meningococcal or viral meningitis only by contacting the carrier of the infection. There are also special risk groups, which include premature babies, people with impaired development of the central nervous system, and injuries to the back and head.
Symptoms of ailment
Meningococcal meningitis is characterized in that the disease occurs acutely, chills suddenly appear and the temperature rises. During the first days, cases of hemorrhagic rashes are not uncommon . Directly meningeal symptoms can be detected already on the first or second day of the disease.
Viral meningitis is dangerous because initially symptoms that are characteristic of the virus that caused the disease can come to the fore, and the picture of inflammation of the membranes of the brain can develop much later. Unlike bacterial meningitis, the temperature during a viral infection rises moderately, rarely above 38 degrees. Meningeal symptoms appear on the third day, sometimes only after a week. Despite the fact that patients complain of severe headache, other symptoms are not pronounced. Serous-viral meningitis is caused by enteroviruses, poliomyelitis virus, mumps and several other species.
Tuberculous meningitis. Previously, such cases have always been fatal. Today, this type of disease is becoming more common, with meningitis may be the first sign of tuberculosis. Tuberculous meningitis, as a rule, is atypical. The disease begins with a fever, after a few days (from three to ten), meningeal symptoms appear. Two weeks later, cerebral symptoms come to the fore .
How to treat meningitis
Regardless of the age of the patient, the elimination of the disease is carried out only in a medical institution, under the supervision of highly qualified specialists. Viral meningitis, like other types of the disease, is treated comprehensively with a large number of drugs, including antiviral drugs and antibiotics. In severe cases, resuscitation procedures are performed. Observing such treatment tactics, meningitis is completely cured, without any complications.
The only reliable type of prevention is to refrain from visiting crowded rooms in the cold season, it is there that the virus is transmitted from sick people to those whose body is unable to cope with the disease.