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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Wilson, Walter and Merle A. Sande. Current Diagnosis & Treatment of Infectious Diseases. New York: McGraw Hill, 2001. Chamberlin, Stacey L., and Brigham Narins. The Gale Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a complicated chronic deteriorating disease that has an effect on the central nervous system (CNS). This disease causes destruction of the myelin around the nerve fibers. “The exact etiology of Multiple Sclerosis is unknown; however, it is thought to be an immune mediated disease. MS is characterized by CNS inflammation, demyelination, and axonal loss” (Compston & Coles, 2008). Typically, it is described by early relapses and remissions of neurological signs of the CNS. This is known as relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS). MS can be identified by a variety of known risk factors. Multiple Sclerosis can be brought on by a mixture of inherited and environmental risk factors such as smoking or an exposure to a virus like Epstein Barr. The inflammatory process has an interesting role on the central nervous system.
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.
During 2007 in India there was a large outbreak of meningococcal meningitis with 128 infected.
, prevention and control in our hospitals, have left South Africa, like the rest of the international community, on the brink of a return to an era of stubbornly resistant pathogenic bacteria towards antibiotics.
The first recorded major outbreak of meningitis occurred in 1805, even though many scientists suggest that Hippocrates was the first to discover the existence of meningitis and there is evidence that suggests that the disease was also studied by pre-Renaissance physicians. Sir Rober Whytt is attributed with the description of tuberculosis meningitis in a report in 1768. Meningitis outbreaks were subsequently described in Europe, America and Africa by 1840. The epidemic became very common in Africa, starting with a major epidemic in Nigeria and Ghana in 1905. Today, Sub-Saharan Africa is known as the meningitis belt because it has been heavily plagued by large epidemics of the disease throughout the century.
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.
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).
Bacterial meningitis: Bacterial meningitis can be a life-threatening infection, and is caused by bacteria such as Neisseria meningitidis and Streptococcus pneumoniae. These organisms are not as contagious as the common cold or flu, but they can spread through activities such as kissi...