Diagnosis should be as fast as possible

Meningitis is a disease in which the membranes (meninges) that cover the brain and spinal cord deteriorate inflamed, usually due to infection.Although Vaccination Has knocked it off the podium for deadliest disease meningitis It still has a mortality rate as high as 10 percent and leaves sequelae for more than 20 percent of survivors, according to the agency. Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN). Some of the most common sequelae are motor and intellectual disabilities, deaf and epilepsy.

Meningitis mainly affects children and adolescents. Despite advances in diagnosis and vaccination, it remains a pathology that can lead to serious complications and leave sequelae that seriously affect the patient’s quality of life. In fact, meningococcal sepsis is the leading cause of death from the infection in children and adolescents in the country.

Six-month-old baby dies of meningitis in Vigo

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How does meningitis happen?

Usually they are caused by microorganisms: bacteria anyone Virus. Worldwide, viral meningitis is the most common, but usually not the most severe.Our greatest concern is life-threatening severe meningitis in children, usually bacterial meningitis, which is epidemiologically less common than viral meningitis, explains Marta Guilin, Secretary of the Intensive and Intensive Neurology Research Group of the Spanish Society of Neurology. Also, although less commonly, there is meningitis caused by: parasite, bacteriaor noninfectious causes, such as chemical reactions or changes in the immune system.

In Spain, nearly 90% of meningitis cases that occur each year are caused by viral or bacterial infections, according to the SEN. Children under 5 years of age and adolescents aged 15 to 24 are the groups most commonly affected by the disease.

Viral meningitis may go unnoticed. It could be severe headache, high fever, feeling unwell for three or four days. You may not even go to the doctor.Sometimes they can be admitted to the hospital, but they hydration And painkillers, that’s all. With symptomatic treatment, these cases can progress smoothly. But bacterial meningitis is very serious, especially in children or adolescents. You have to diagnose quickly and treat quickly because I know they need antibiotics.have antibiotic Effectively, if detected in time, the patient recovers. In addition, against these bacteria, there are vaccines. We now have vaccines against almost all the bacteria that cause meningitis. It’s impossible to generalize, Gene said, but there are vaccines.

Therefore, meningitis affects younger people more, because children still do not have a full vaccination schedule. It is important that older siblings are vaccinated because adolescents can carry these organisms in the nose or throat without symptoms and infect young children. It is usually transmitted through saliva droplets, respiratory tract, just like the new coronavirus. Adults are usually asymptomatic and can infect children or adolescents, the neurologist explained.

diagnosis and treatment

To detect meningitis, first consider the symptoms a patient presents in the emergency room or office. There are a range of symptoms that indicate the presence of meningitis. They are general symptoms such as fever and headache, neck stiffness (difficulty moving the neck), and then possibly nausea and vomiting along with the headache. To diagnose meningitis, a lumbar puncture, a test that involves drawing fluid from the brain and down the spine, should be done. Extract this fluid at the waist and study it.This way, the bacteria that cause meningitis can be detected, details paul irimiaNeurologist Coordinator of the Headache Study Group of the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN).

Meningitis is treated with antibiotics, and the key is early diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible. They are known to be diseases associated with death if not treated early. With severe meningitis, 10 to 20 percent of people may die, the neurologist said.

Sequelae and complications of meningitis

More or less 20% to 30% of patients may have sequelae. Usually the most common symptom is basically deafness, and then other cranial nerves are involved, and symptoms such as epilepsy may occur. Irimia explained that in order not to leave sequelae, the key is early treatment. There are sequelae, and if cranial nerve damage occurs, it is difficult to get better. This is the case, for example, with deafness or certain cranial nerve palsies. In patients with epilepsy as a sequela, it is necessary to treat the disease as a permanent sequela. And then there’s the series of sequelae, like thickening of the meninges and fluid in the brain not being reabsorbed well. Sometimes, this can lead to fluid buildup in the brain, which must be treated with medication or surgery to ensure the fluid drains properly, the expert added.

The sequelae occur because it is a serious infection, so if it is not stopped in time, the inflammation of the meninges can create intracranial hypertension, which is poor circulation of the cerebrospinal fluid, which is the fluid around the brain. brain. So, it looks compressed, which can cause coma. In addition, inflammation of the meninges around the nerves can affect things like the auditory nerve and lead to deafness, a classic sequelae of meningitis, Jean said.

In this sense, all experts stress, it is a problem: Emergency situations In medicine, because early diagnosis and treatment depend on the patient’s prognosis. Also, the problem is that meningitis can happen within hours. Within a few hours, a person can become very serious. For example, when it affects infants, it can be difficult to recognize the symptoms because they cannot speak. And the child has little defense against such a serious infection. Jilin explained that this was a medical emergency because the situation was developing very quickly.

In Spain, one of the scariest cases of meningitis is caused by bacteria Neisseria meningitidis, Meningococcus. It is an acute and serious bacterial infection that can spread to the bloodstream, although in some cases it is limited to the meninges.If so, it is called meningococcal sepsis In Spain, it is the leading cause of death from infection in children and adolescents, a pathology that can lead to serious complications and leave sequelae that seriously affect quality of life.

There are many prognostic factors that affect the likelihood of sequelae, one of which is the timing of initiation of antibiotic therapy. The longer the time, the greater the possibility of sequelae. And age. Irimia noted that the older a person is, the greater the likelihood of death or long-term sequelae.

For this, before Sudden feversevere headache and/or stiff neck, or nausea or vomiting, SEN recommends immediate medical attention.

Prevention and Epidemics

Cases of meningococcal disease fell by 31% last year, according to the National Epidemiological Surveillance Network. This is estimated to be due to movement restrictions, pandemic precautions, and inclusion of ACWY vaccine in adolescent males in vaccination schedules. In this sense, since it is a disease with a similar transmission mechanism to covid-19, safe distances and the use of masks make the bacteria and viruses that cause it spread less easily.

One way to prevent meningitis is to Vaccination enough. Every time we get a better vaccine, we get a vaccine against different bacteria that we’ve never been vaccinated against before. Vaccination against bacteria such as meningococcus or pneumococcus, which are probably the bacteria most commonly causing bacterial meningitis, is being rolled out now, and our vaccines cover most pneumococci and meningococci to some degree. In this way, we can avoid infection, and even lessen the severity of infection if it does occur, Irimia said.

Miguel Ángel López Ziga, a doctor and meningitis survivor, insists on the need to include vaccination in all communities’ immunization schedules. Most importantly, the health authorities are responsible for preventing this problem. Currently, in Spain, we face the problem of vaccination. Not all children have the same access to vaccinations, depending on which municipality they live in. In a developed country like ours, this is not allowed. No matter where you live in the region, vaccinations must be comprehensive, he said.

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