Posts Tagged ‘Meningitis’
Meningitis: Treatment and Prevention
What is the treatment of meningitis?
As already mentioned, meningitis is a potentially fatal disease, caused in most cases by bacteria, which requires hospitalization, as soon as possible to begin treatment with intravenous antibiotics for a week.
At the slightest suspicion of meningitis, you should go immediately to a hospital emergency department to be evaluated by a specialist.
How can meningitis be prevented?
It is estimated that carriers of the meningococcus in the nasopharynx vary between 2 and 5 100 healthy children and up to 90% in the groups of military personnel during epidemics. Typically, meningococcal meningitis is a disease of children. The organism is acquired from an adult carrier, usually from the same family. The probability of disease after a family contact is about 1%, which is multiplied by 1,000 when the contact occurs in the community. Read the rest of this entry »
Vaccine Against Meningitis
Is there a vaccine against meningitis?
Currently, several vaccines are available against meningococcus. We have vaccines against types A, C and Y, but unfortunately not yet prepared an effective meningococcal vaccine for serogroup B, which is most common in our environment.
The vaccine is made from small bits of the bacteria, known as the polysaccharides, which stimulate our defense system to create antibodies against the meningococcus. Thus, if our bodies come into contact at some point with the pathogen, we would have already sufficient defense weapons to destroy it.
Keep in mind that the vaccine does not prevent the occurrence of other types of meningitis bacteria, such as the Haemophilus influenzae or meningococcal type B. Read the rest of this entry »
The Cause of Meningitis
What is the most common cause of meningitis?
One of the most common pathogens in the onset of meningitis is the meningococcus, it is a cookie-shaped bacteria with special eagerness to inflame the meningeal structures.
Have distinguished four different types of meningococcus, is classified into types A, B, C and Y, each with special characteristics, in which we will not enter. But knowledge of the existence of these subtypes is critical to understand the problem then the meningococcal vaccine raises.
Meningococcal meningitis can occur sporadically, ie in a community is a isolated case, or associated with outbreaks of meningitis, as has happened in recent years in some parts of Spain.
Meningococcal meningitis can affect any age but is most common in children and young adults can occur at any time of year, but the cases are more frequent in winter and early spring. Read the rest of this entry »
Meningitis: Symptoms and Complications
What are the symptoms of meningitis?
All meningitis is defined from the clinical standpoint, the presence of a meningeal syndrome, characterized by a series of signs and symptoms:
- The most important manifestation of meningitis is headache, usually affecting the entire head, although some patients may notice more discomfort in the back, is very intense and is often accompanied by sensitivity to light and noise.
- Patients with meningitis usually have vomiting that are not related to digestion, usually preceded by nausea, and often run parallel to the severity of the headache.
- The fever is usually very high and is often accompanied by chills previous, but this symptom may not appear in older people.
- The so-called signs of meningeal irritation help the doctor in his diagnosis of meningitis, the main sign is the stiff neck that is stiff when the patient tries to touch your chin to your chest. This movement is very painful and the patient can not perform. Read the rest of this entry »