Symptoms of eosinophil meningitis and how to treat it
Eosinophil meningitis is a rare type of meningitis that occurs after ingesting meat from animals contaminated with the parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis, which infests giant African snails, slugs, crabs or snails; In addition, the consumption of food contaminated by the secretion released by snails can also cause this disease.
- After ingesting this parasite or foods contaminated with these secretions.
- The person may experience symptoms such as severe headache.
- Nausea.
- Vomiting and neck stiffness and.
- In this case.
- Should go to the emergency room for treatment.
Treatment is usually done with painkillers to relieve headaches and steroids to treat inflammation of tissues lining the central nervous system.
The most common symptoms of eosinophil meningitis include
In the face of these symptoms, the person should immediately go to the hospital for a test called lumbar puncture, which involves taking a small amount of CSF from the spinal cord, this test identifies whether this fluid is contaminated and, if so, why.microorganism, which is critical to deciding how treatment will be performed.
Learn more about how your lumbar puncture is performed.
Treatment of meningitis by eosinophils should be done in the hospital and is usually done with antiparasitics, painkillers to relieve headaches and corticosteroids to treat inflammation of meningitis, which affects the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord, called meninges, and is also useful for reducing brain pressure.
If the pressure in your brain doesn’t decrease with medications, your doctor may perform several lumbar punctures to relieve pressure more effectively.
When treatment is not performed as quickly as possible, the patient may have sequelae, such as loss of vision and hearing or decreased muscle strength, especially in the arms and legs. Check out the other possible sequelae of meningitis.
Eosinophil meningitis is caused by parasites that are transmitted to humans in the following ways:
Thus, it is possible to contract this meningitis when
Once the person has ingested the larvae, they pass through the bloodstream to the brain, causing this meningitis.
To protect yourself and not be contaminated by the parasite responsible for eosinophile meningitis, it is important not to consume contaminated animals, but since it is not possible to identify whether an animal is contaminated, just because of its appearance, it is not recommended to eat this type of animal.
In addition, to avoid this disease, all vegetables and fruits that may be contaminated by the secretions left by slugs, for example, should be washed.
Snails usually appear during the rainy season, have no natural predators and reproduce very quickly, easily found in gardens and backyards, even in large cities, so to remove slugs and snails it is recommended to place them in a fully enclosed plastic bag., breaking its shell. The animal is not able to survive more than 2 days enclosed in a plastic bag where it cannot drink water or feed itself.It is not recommended to put salt in it as it will cause dehydration, releasing intense secretion, which can contaminate the environment around them.