How is meningitis transmitted?

Meningitis is a dangerous contagious disease. It affects the soft tissue of the brain and can penetrate into the cerebrospinal fluid. The disease is severe enough and sometimes leads to extremely unpleasant consequences. Warn it is much easier than cure. And to do this, it will not hurt to know how meningitis is transmitted and to observe all appropriate preventive measures.

How can meningitis be transmitted from person to person?

The cause of the disease in most cases - harmful microorganisms. The main ways of transmission of meningitis can be as follows:

1. Infection is prone to infants. In some cases, the disease is transmitted from mother to baby, even when the woman in labor has no severe symptoms. At risk are children born as a result of caesarean section.
2. Air-drip way - one of the most common. Microorganisms come out of a sick organism with a cough, during a sneeze and even during a conversation.
3. Another way of how meningitis is transmitted is oral-fecal.
4. It is not advisable to use the things of an infected person - the ailment can be picked up by contact-household means.
5. It is better not to contact the blood of the patient.

Ways of infection with purulent meningitis

The purulent form of the disease is caused by meningococci. This meningitis is transmitted by airborne droplets, with saliva during a kiss, through objects that have been hit by pathogens, with blood and during sex, as well as during pregnancy and childbirth.

To have infected only one contact with meningococcus is not enough. There should be a decrease in local or general immunity.

How is viral and bacterial meningitis transmitted?

The cause of viral meningitis is often enteroviruses. Infection by them can occur and airborne, and contact-household way. To catch the ailment in the pool, the lake or other water bodies manage to a little, and yet sometimes such cases are ascertained.

Bacteria that cause the bacterial form of the disease can live in the nasopharynx for several years. They begin to cause harm only when they enter the bloodstream, and thence into the cerebral membrane or cerebrospinal fluid. Dangerous microorganisms are transmitted through saliva or mucus.

How is tuberculous meningitis transmitted?

In tubercular meningitis, blame the tuberculosis mycobacterium . It can be infected only through blood or by means of a liquorigenic spread.