Viral meningitis what is it

If you have close contact with someone who has viral meningitis, they may spread the virus to you. However, you are not likely to develop meningitis.

Meningococcal disease is any illness caused by a type of bacteria called Neisseria meningitidis. These illnesses are serious and include meningitis and bloodstream infections septicemia. More about meningococcal disease…. Get clinical disease information, as well as vaccine recommendations and vaccination resources, for common causes of meningitis. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link.

Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Minus Related Pages. Typically in bacterial meningitis the white cell count is much higher than in viral meningitis and is a different type of white cell , the protein is much higher and the glucose is much lower than in viral meningitis.

It is important to know whether the cause is viral or bacterial as this will determine how to treat the patient. In bacterial meningitis antibiotics are essential but in viral meningitis antibiotics will not have any effect. Unfortunately there are no proven treatments for viral meningitis, however, sometimes a doctor might give a drug called Aciclovir which has been shown to be of benefit in other conditions caused by the herpes simplex virus or the chickenpox virus.

Patients with viral meningitis may feel quite unwell for a while after the illness, with symptoms of fatigues, headache and anxiety. However, viral meningitis almost never kills people. Bacterial meningitis on the other hand can be rapidly fatal or cause devastating after effects , so it is important to treat these cases with antibiotics as soon as possible.

Viral meningitis is not passed on to others by being in close contact — unlike the meningococcal form of bacterial meningitis — so no preventive treatment is needed for relatives. What should I do if I think I have meningitis? If you suspect that you, or someone you know, might be suffering from meningitis it is important to seek medical attention as soon as possible. What's the difference between bacterial and viral meningitis?

June What is viral meningitis? Doctors diagnose meningitis by ordering specific lab tests on specimens from a person suspected of having meningitis.

If a doctor suspects meningitis, he or she may collect samples for testing by. In most cases, there is no specific treatment for viral meningitis. Most people who get mild viral meningitis usually recover completely in 7 to 10 days without treatment.

Antiviral medicine may help people with meningitis caused by viruses such as herpesvirus and influenza. Antibiotics do not help viral infections, so they are not useful in the treatment of viral meningitis. However, antibiotics do fight bacteria, so they are very important when treating bacterial meningitis.

People who develop severe illness, or are at risk for developing severe illness, may need care in a hospital. There are no vaccines available in the United States to protect against non-polio enteroviruses, which are the most common cause of viral meningitis. The best way to help protect yourself and others from non-polio enterovirus infections is to. Vaccines can protect against some diseases, such as measles, mumps, chickenpox, and influenza, which can lead to viral meningitis.

The risk to contacts is very low. Viral meningitis does not normally require public health measures to be taken because although some of the viruses that cause it are contagious, most people infected have no symptoms, or only very mild ones. A person with viral meningitis may pass on the virus, but this would be very unlikely to cause another person to develop viral meningitis as well.

Most causes of viral meningitis are not preventable, although a good general precaution against viral meningitis is attention to handwashing since enteroviruses in particular usually enter the body via the hand to mouth route.

Immunisation against mumps and measles MMR is offered to children at months and 3 years of age as part of the routine childhood immunisation schedule.

Immunisations are also available for some Flaviviruses such as tick-borne encephalitis and Japanese encephalitis, and are recommended for travellers to areas where the risk of these infections is high. Logan, S. MacMahon, Viral meningitis. BMJ, Kupila, L. Neurology, Herpes Viruses Association. Gupta, R. Best, and E. MacMahon, Mumps and the UK epidemic Schmidt, H. Brain, Sittinger, H. J Neurol, Wilfert, C. Pediatrics,