Pathophysiology of Meningitis and Encephalitis
Meningitis and encephalitis are two similar infections of the central nervous system that often lead to fatality of the host organism. Both diseases occur when pathogens enter the blood stream and gain access into the central nervous system. Stimulating inflammation within the cranial cavity, the pathogens continue to multiply and take harmful effects on the host. Inflammation, the body’s response to infection, ultimately causes all of the symptoms and complications of meningitis and encephalitis. The pathophysiology of meningitis and encephalitis aids in the explanation and understanding of the symptoms, effects, and underlying agendas of the two infections.
Meningitis is the inflammation of the meninges, membranes that encase the brain and spinal cord. Although meningitis can result from protozoal or fungal infections, bacteria and viruses typically cause the often fatal disease. Known for its sudden onset of flu-like symptoms, the infection rapidly progresses into an agonizing cascade of high fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, light sensitivity, purpura (dark discolorations of the skin caused by bleeding beneath the skin), and possibly seizures. In severe cases of meningitis, limbs or extremities must be amputated due to the appearance of purpura.
Viral meningitis, the most common form of the disease, often resolves itself without treatment within a few days. However, bacterial meningitis, somewhat rare in the United States but rampant in West Africa, requires immediate attention in order to prevent fatality. The bacteria that cause meningitis include Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus agalactiae, and Listeria monocytogenes. The severity of the body’...
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Around the world, many people are living with neurologically debilitating disorders like multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis is best described as a pathological “inflammatory-mediated demyelinating disease of the human central nervous system,” and affects more than 2.5 million people globally (Trapp & Nave, 2008).
Although mad-cow disease is always fatal, it is not really much of a worry in the United States. There have only been four cases of mad-cow disease ever recorded in the United States. In every case, the United States Department of Agriculture has intervened and recalled tons of beef, 10,400 lbs. in the first case to be exact, in order to insure that the meat did not reach the plates of United States citizens.
The human immune system is an amazing system that is constantly on the alert protecting us from
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According to the World Health Organization, “of the 75 million children under five in Africa a million and a half die each year of pneumonia.” As distressing and sad as this statistic is, it points out the great danger pneumococcus still is to young people in the developing world. It’s in the developed world, but at a time before antibiotics, at a time when acute respiratory ailments posed an even greater but still preventable threat to the younger set that concerns us here and that inspires a deeper look at the full implications of respiratory disease. The WHO goes on to say that acute respiratory infection (ARI) “is one of five conditions which account for more than 70% of child mortality in Africa.” So not only is pneumonia prevalent, it is still deadly. The danger it poses to young people has life-influencing ramifications, ones with an incredible emotional content. Though more treatable now, as we’ll see later, the persistence of pneumonia fits in with the puzzle as it presents itself, since it is linkable to a much more fundamental human ailment.
Due to its tendency to be both a viral and bacterial disease, meningitis can prove difficult to treat. Its dual tendencies also mean that various methods are used to attack the disease. In order to treat meningitis, different aspects of the disease must be discovered first. The type of organism causing the infection, the age of the patient, and the extent of the infection must all be taken into account (WebMD, sec. 8). Any time meningitis is found, immediate treatment with antibiotics is required, and continuation of antibiotic treatment depends on whether a bacteria or a virus is causing th...
... resulting impairment to the CNS. The first group of mice exhibited a pattern of CNS inflammation that resembled that of the most common subtype of MS, RRMS, with lesions filled with macrophages, a type of immune defender cell. The second group of mice displayed inflammation deep in the CNS tissues and in the optic nerve with lesions filled with neutrophils, another type of immune cell. Both groups of mice were given antibody drugs similar to drugs being developed against MS in humans. The effects were observed over time and results showed that some of the drugs inhibited disease in the first group of mice but did not inhibit disease in the second group. Thus, as Mark Kroenke (2008), the study’s first author and a Ph.D. student in immunology at U-M stated, "That's our proof that these really are different mechanisms of disease" (Kroenke et al., 2008).
Meningitis, it’s an infection in the cerebral spinal fluid and inflammation of the meninges; the three outer layers of the brain. To be more specific, those three layers are called the Dura mater, Arachnoid mater, and the Pia mater. There are three main types of meningitis that will be discussed throughout this paper; viral, bacterial, and fungal. Each form is very similar but they all vary in terms of causative organisms, treatment and severity. Although meningitis is not very common, it can become very severe and always needs to be treated immediately.
Meningitis is defined as inflammation of the meninges, which are the thin membranous covering of the brain and spinal cord. There are different variations of the disease which include bacterial, viral, fungal, parasitic, and non-infectious.
During 2007 in India there was a large outbreak of meningococcal meningitis with 128 infected.
Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges, which are membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis can be caused by infections from viruses, bacterium, or other microorganisms. Due to the inflammation being in close proximity to the brain and spinal cord, meningitis can be life threatening and is classified as a medical emergency.
Both of these symptoms are was for your body to help expel phlegm or mucus from the body. Another symptom is swelling of the face and or neck usually accompanied by pain around the eyes, nose, and forehead. This pain and swelling is caused by the introduction of the virus into your upper respiratory tract, therefore causing mucus building up in your nasal passages and then in your sinuses causing them both to become impacted. Many people complain of hoarseness, aches and pains in their joints, fever of about 101 degrees, and general aches and pains all over their bodies (Anthanasoid).
The emergence of Penicillin marked the dawn of the antibiotic era and allowed for diseases which normally ended in death or dysfunction to be eliminated and for people to carry on living healthy lives. It is estimated that 90% of children who had meningitis of the bacterial kind in the pre-antibiotic era would either die or survive the illness with a physical impairment. Strep throat, whooping cough, tuberculosis and pneumonia are among some of the other fatal bacterial diseases which would usually result in a fatality. Antibiotics decreased the mortality rates, and so new antibiotics were formed.