The brain and the spinal cord are surrounded by soft membranes to protect the inner tissues. Spinal meningitis occurs when these membranes get swollen due to some reason and develops inflammation. An important feature of meningitis is high fever with a stiff neck. Meningitis is caused by viral infection or fungal infection. The disease can be treated by medications and early intervention but sometimes it can be serious and life threatening.
Symptoms :
Early signs of meningitis will be high fever or flu like symptoms. For this reason many people fail to recognize the disease leading to complications. Meningitis symptoms can develop within hours or few days depending on the intensity of infection.
Some of the important signs of spinal meningitis are:
- Stiffness in neck region
- High fever (occurs suddenly)
- Muscle spasm, joint pain and more intense pain in spine region
- Difficulty in concentrating or confusion of thoughts
- Extreme tiredness
- Severe headache/nausea/vomiting
- Trouble in getting quality sleep and difficulty in waking up
In some cases, the affected person may get sudden seizures or skin rashes and he becomes sensitive to light.Spinal meningitis may develop in infants and newborns also. If the infant develops sudden high fever accompanied with stiff neck then you must rush to the doctor immediately.
Some infants will have symptoms like excess of sleepiness, inactivity, trouble in feeding and constant crying with irritation. In some cases a soft bulging may appear on the baby’s head and it has great discomfort.When compared with bacterial meningitis, viral meningitis is better since the symptoms can improve even without treatment. Delay in taking treatment can cause complications or severe brain damage. In severe cases meningitis can cause death.
Causes :
Meningitis can be caused by viral or bacterial infection. Bacterial infection is more serious and life threatening than viral infection.