Meningitis

Running head : MENINGITIS

Meningitis

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Meningitis

Meningitis is a serious illness that cost the lives of thousands of people around the world annually . The root words of meningitis are meninges which are the three membranes that cover the brain and the spinal cord and , the latin suffix -itis which means inflammation . Thus meningitis is defined as the swelling of the meninges of the brain and the spinal cord (CDC , 2008 . Meningitis is not a particular infectious disease but rather it

is a pathological condition

There several etiologic agents that can cause this meningitis including bacteria , viruses , and fungi . The most frequently encountered etiologic type of meningitis is the viral or aseptic meningitis . Though this is the mostly observed etiologic type it has less severity than that of the bacterial meningitis . Examples of viral species that can cause meningitis are herpes simplex virus mumps and measles virus chicken pox virus and rabies virus (CDC , 2008

In contrast , the bacterium caused meningitis is a serious and often results to higher mortalities than the virus-caused meningitis Susceptibility to bacterial meningitis is increased in children and geriatric (elderly ) people (IDPH . The bacterial species that are highly indicated as etiologic agents of this pathological condition are Haemophilus influenzae serotype b (Hib , primary etiologic agent Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitidis . The meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitides are called pneumococcal and meningococcal meningitis , respectively . The above mentioned bacterial species only causes approximately 80 percent of...