Meningitis Essay

There are over 4000 people affected by bacterial meningitis and around 500 deaths from this in the US every year ("Meningitis."). 6000 cases of pneumococcal meningitis are reported in the US each year and meningococcal meningitis infects close to 2600 people in the US each year ("Meningitis."). 10-15% of these meningococcal cases are fatal, while an additional 10-15% lives with permanent

Neisseria meningitidis is a fastidious, aerobic, and encapsulated gram-negative diplococcus which infects humans via droplet transmission to and from mucosal surfaces in the nasopharyngeal region. Only humans can be infected with N. meningitidis and the disease manifests in children under two years of age and in young adults. N. meningitidis can be found as normal regional flora of the nasopharynx in some individuals, but when it causes infection leads to meningitis and occasionally septicaemia. The major symptoms of N. meningitidis infection include a stiff neck, high fever, photophobia, confusion, cephalgia and emesis. If the patient’s condition has worsened causing sepsis, they can present with a haemorrhagic rash which is indicative of

Some bacteria that cause meningitis can also cause septicaemia. Septicaemia is caused by bacteria multiplying in the bloodstream. The bacteria release toxins that damage the walls of the blood vessels, causing them to leak. The immune system is unable to counteract these toxins.

Meningitis attacks the meninges - the protective film covering of the brain and the spinal cord. Symptoms can come on rapidly and often include a severe headache, stiff neck and possible fever. Encephalitis, affects the brain itself, causing flu-like symptoms. Both condition can occur on their own or in concurrence with the

Neisseria meningitidis is an injurious and possibly deadly disease-causing bacterium in humans of any age. The most common ages affected by bacterial meningitis are infants, children, and young adults. (1,3) Neisseria meningitidis is a fast-acting bacterium that can kill the host within 6 hours of the onset of symptoms. An estimated 10% of infected persons will die from the disease even with antibiotic treatment. (4) Any disease caused by Neisseria meningitidis is classified as meningococcal and the diseases caused are meningococcal meningitis and meningococcal septicemia. (2) The most common cause of bacterial meningitis is Neisseria meningitidis, which is a vaccine preventable disease. The availability of a vaccine to protect against this

Meningococcal disease is a disease that can be found worldwide. Meningococcal disease refers to any disease or illness that is caused by the type of bacteria called Neisseria meningitides, also called meningococcus (Meningococcal disease, 2015). The first documented outbreak was over two hundred years ago in Geneva in 1805 which circulated rapidly and killed thirty three people. The first case ever recorded in America was in 1806 in Medford, Massachusetts (Fredericks, n.d.). A European physician, Professor A Weichselbaum, discovered the cause of the mysterious cerebro-spinal meningitis illness in 1887 and Penicillin was the first antibiotic used to fight the disease. In 1978 the first

The majority of people do not know how meningitis develops among students, how it can spread, and how vaccinations and awareness affect the chances of catching this disease. The first paragraph is about the number of students affected each year and the process of the development of that numbers between 1991-1999. The second paragraph is about the lack of awareness and how it affects the chances of getting meningitis. Also, it will talk about the effect of meningitis vaccinations on these chances. The third paragraph is about the stress between students and how it affects the immune system. Meningitis is one of the most serious and spreadable diseases on college campuses and dormitories because of the number of students that are affected each year, ignorance of awareness about meningitis symptoms and vaccinations, and the lack of knowledge concerning the correlation between college stress and disease control that weakens the immune system.

Meningitis is spread from person to person through saliva/spit often directly transmitted through kissing, coughing or extended contact with another person i.e. living in the same household.

Meningococcal Meningitis is the inflammation of the protective coverings of brain and spinal cord called the meninges. Meningococcal Meningitis is caused by the Neisseria meningitidis bacteria (Theobald, M, 2014). There are five forms of meningitis, bacterial being the most fatal. The other form types are viral, parasitic, fungal, and non-infectious. Meningococcal Meningitis can also be caused by other bacterium called Streptococcus pneumoniae, group B Streptococcus, Haemophilus influenzae, and, Listeria monocytogenes (CDC, 2016). Without any treatment of meningitis, it can spread into the blood and cause sepsis--when chemicals released into the bloodstream to fight the infection, trigger inflammatory responses throughout the body. This inflammation can trigger a cascade of changes that can damage multiple organ systems, causing them to fail (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2016). Meningitis is usually caused as a secondary infection when it makes its way into the central nervous

N. meningitides bacterium responsible for outbreaks in densely populated areas such as childcare centers, boarding schools, or college living areas (Smeltzer, Bare, Hinkle, & Cheever, 2010). These outbreaks are most common in winter and spring months when risk factors like upper respiratory infections are more likely (Smeltzer, Bare, Hinkle, & Cheever, 2010). Immunosuppression must be present for this pathogen to invade. Other risk factors for meningitis are otitis media (middle ear infection), mastoiditis (mastoid bone infection) (Smeltzer, Bare, Hinkle, & Cheever, 2010), systemic sepsis, sinusitis (sinus infection), basilar skull fractures, and the very young and the very old (Porth & Matfin, 2009).

Meningitis can be destructive without proper understanding of what it is caused by. There are three types of meningitis- bacterial, fungal, and viral. Contrasting factors tend to arise during a comparison of them. One of the most notable areas that viral, fungal and bacterial meningitis differ in are their treatment ability. However, they have the same general affects on the human body. In any case, there are tests that doctors can utilize in order to discover if the meningitis is bacterial, fungal, or viral.

Meningococcal disease is a large concern in the medical field because it is unbiased towards the patients it infects. There has been limited success in trying to eliminate this disease. Antibiotics play a role in helping to treat patients with bacterial meningitis, and steroids have been tested to help reduce risk factors. Prevention has also become a key issue because meningitis can only be spread through direct contact with infected body fluid. The best prevention is to maintain clean hygiene. Vaccines are another way of preventing disease. However, there are multiple serogroups of meningitis that makes creating a universal vaccine extremely difficult. So far, there have only been two

Finally, the diseases that fungal and bacterial pathogens cause are completely different. Fungal diseases are rarer and more likely to be fatal. One of the most fatal fungal pathogens is Candida. Candidiasis infections have many types the most common non-fatal type is oral also known as thrush. Invasive Candidiasis infections occur if Candida yeast gets in your bloodstream and you have a weakened immune system and a yeast infection goes untreated. Candidiasis infections have a forty to fifty percent mortality rate for systemic infections (Hidalgo, 1994-2013). Bacterial diseases are more common and there are so many different types. Some bacterial infections are Botulism, Lyme disease, and gonorrhea. Botulism is a disease that causes neuroparalysis because of a

Some of the viruses that cause encephalitis are arboviruses, cytomegalovirus, poliovirus, herpes zoster, and herpes simplex type 1. West Nile virus has been a big

Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges, membranes that surround the brain. This can extend as far as infecting the cerebral spinal fluid on top of causing the tissue to swell. Meningitis comes in two major forms; bacterially and virally. However, having bacterial meningitis is much more severe than viral meningitis. There is a lot more danger in having a bacterial infection within the brain than a viral infection within the brain. What makes bacterial meningitis so lethal is that “even when the disease is diagnosed early and adequate treatment is started, 5% to 10% of patients die, typically within 24 to 48 hours after the onset of symptoms. Left untreated, up to 50% of cases may die, (6) or there