Bacterial meningitis is the infection that causes inflammation of the tissues lining the brain and spinal cord, caused by different types of bacteria such as Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Haemophilus influenzae.
Bacterial meningitis is usually a serious life-threatening situation, if not treated properly, although bacterial meningitis has a cure, but only the first symptoms should be brought to the hospital emergency room so that they can receive the most appropriate treatment possible.
- The incubation time of the bacteria is 4 days.
- So after this period.
- The person has the first symptoms of the disease that could be:.
In addition to these symptoms, in case of meningitis in infants, they may include irritability, severe stress, seizures and hardened fontanelle.
Learn how to identify symptoms of meningitis in children
Bacterial meningitis contagion occurs through contact with saliva drops from an infected individual, so the meningitis patient should wear a mask and prevent shear, reversing speech from very healthy individuals, however, the prevention of bacterial meningitis can be achieved with the introduction of the meningitis vaccine, which should be given to infants at 2 , 4 and 6 months.
In addition to human-to-human contagion, meningitis can occur in newborns if they become infected with group B strep during childbirth, a bacterium that may be in the mother’s vagina but does not cause symptoms; this guy’s called postpartum meningitis.
To diagnose bacterial meningitis, your doctor evaluates symptoms in the individual, in addition to this, you may also order a cerebrospinal fluid test to examine for bacteria.
Also, if the test is positive, you can order an antibiotic to identify the type of antibiotic that will be used to treat a certain bacteria.
Bacterial meningitis sequences may include
Bacterial meningitis sequences usually occur when treatment is not performed correctly, especially in people over the age of 50 or children.
Treatment for bacterial meningitis should be done in the hospital with intravenous antibiotic placement, but the person may be hospitalized in isolation for the first 24 hours after starting antibiotic treatment and could go home from there. cable. 14 to 28 days, when fully cured.
Medications will be prescribed by your doctor and will indicate the antibiotic based on the type of bacteria involved:
In children, your doctor may prescribe prednisone
Antibiotics can be taken as soon as possible, as if they were sick, and if they do not have meningitis it may not be necessary to continue treatment. In addition to medications, intravenous blood placement can be important.
If your doctor, for some reason, can’t determine which bacteria cause meningitis, he or she may indicate a combination of antibiotics such as penicillin G. , crystalline ampicillin or chloranphenicol or ceftriaxone, for example.