A 20-year-old man from Kirehe district came to the hospital one Wednesday night with chills, severe headache and poor vision. The young man suffered great pain throughout his body. His skin was extremely sensitive and at the slightest touch, he winced. He said that he had persistently been vomiting over the past few weeks. It is important to notice that these symptoms are troublesome, yet they creep in so slowly. Vomiting many times is mistaken for food poisoning. However, food poisoning is always followed by diarrhea, which is not the case with meningitis. The symptoms surround systematic occurrences of unstable reflexes that can only be detected by a doctor. Meningitis is an infectious disease, whose cause is a result of various agents. Most human infections have an established clear link between the name of the disease and its cause. Meningitis means the inflammation of the brain shell (brain covers or layers called meninges). Causes for inflammation can be due to numerous micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses and fungi in the brain. This happens when a specific agent enters the cavity of the skull and causes brain inflammation within the shells. Serous meningitis can be caused by any virus that can penetrate the central nervous system. The development of viral meningitis may result from infections like wind pox, measles, rubella, mumps, brain lesion and infections caused by herpes viruses. More still, hundreds of children suffer from enteric virus meningitis which differs significantly in its mode of transmission from bacterial meningitis. The virus enters the body with water or food, multiplies in the intestines, and enters the blood. And then begins the process of inflammation of the meninges. The virus is very resistant in the environment and while in tap water it is able to persist for weeks, and can even withstand short-term boiling. To completely destroy the virus from tap water, it must be boiled for over 10minutes. The only way to confirm and exclude meningitis is through a Lumbar Puncture. The study of cerebral spinal fluid collected from the Lumbar Puncture is not only to establish the diagnosis of meningitis, but also to also determine the type of meningitis existing. josephmunich06@yahoo.fr
