Bacterial Meningitis

Bacterial meningitis is normally treated with a course of antibiotics, it is an infection which can cause great damage to the body and tends to affect the spinal cord or fluid around the brain which leads it to be a life threatening infection.

There are two types of meningitis both viral and bacterial, out of the two types of meningitis viral meningitis is the mildest one as it is seen to be mild and the symptoms can clear fairly quickly with the appropriate treatment. Bacterial meningitis is more severe and in some cases the effects of such meningitis can lead to death or serious brain damage.

There are various types of bacteria which can lead to bacterial meningitis and a lot of research has gone into finding ways to try and reduce the number of people who suffer every year. Over the last ten years children have been given immunizations which have reduced the number of people who suffer from Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b). However if this is done at school and your child may be off that day it is important to keep a record of what your child has had and check this with your GP to make sure your child is up to date with the various injections needed. Hib was the main bacteria causing people to suffer from bacterial meningitis over ten years ago. However there are other bacteria’s which can cause bacterial meningitis such as Neisseria meningitidis, and Streptococcus pneumoniae which are now the most common cause of bacterial meningitis.

When suffering from bacterial meningitis it is important to identify which of the above bacteria’s are causing the meningitis as it is possible for some treatments to be able help stop further spread of the disease with a course of specific antibiotics. It is not possible with all three types however it might limit more people from suffering. To understand if you are suffering signs of bacterial meningitis, you may start to have a high fever or suffer from severe headaches, it is also possible to become nauseous. Babies can contract the disease and is possibly harder to detect as it would be hard to identify if they were to have a headache or stiff neck maybe, a baby would become irritable or have poor feeding patterns.

Bacterial meningitis can be prevented with various vaccines; however there are different vaccines for the different bacteria’s, some of which are now given to you throughout your childhood. It is sometimes hard to differentiate between what are flu like symptoms and symptoms which could be the first signs of meningitis. No matter how small the signs maybe it is better to get checked by your local GP as it could get a lot worse and harder to treat if you leave to see if these symptoms do eventually go away. Statistics may show low figures of the number of people who do suffer, about three thousand people a year are diagnosed with some type of bacterial meningitis, but some do die from the disease and therefore action and treatment need to be implemented as soon as possible to bring these figures down.