Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about meningitis.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero to finals.com

or in the Infectious Diseases section of the second edition of the zero to finals medicine book.

So let's get straight into it. Meninitis refers to inflammation of the meninges, usually due to

infection. The meninges are the lining of the brain and the spinal cord. Cerebrospinal fluid

or CSF is contained within the spinal cord. Cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF, is contained within the

meninges in the subarachnoid space. Let's start with bacterial meningitis. The causes of bacterial

meningitis include Niceria meningitis, streptococcus, or Numeroccus, hemophilus influenza,

group B streptococcus or GBS, particularly in neonates, as GBS may colonize the vagina, and

Listeria monocytogenes, which also affects neonates.

Nyseria meningitidis is a gram-negative diplococcus bacteria.

They're circular bacteria, or cocky, that occur in pairs, which is what Diplo refers to.

It's commonly known as meningoccus, and it's the most

common cause of bacterial meningitis. Meninjicoccal meningitis is when the bacteria infects

the meninges and the cerebrospinal fluid. Meninjicoccal septicemia is when the meningococcus bacterial infection is in the bloodstream.

Meningoccal septicemia can cause the classic non-blanching rash.

Next let's talk about viral meningitis. The most common causes of viral meningitis are enteroviruses, for example Coxsacki virus, herpesymplex virus or HSV, and varicella zoster virus or VZV.

Viral PCR testing can be performed on the CSF or cerebrospinal fluid sample.

Acyclovir is used to treat herpes simplex virus and varicella zoster virus.

Next let's talk about the presentation.

The typical symptoms of meningitis are fever, neck stiffness, vomiting, headache, photophobia, altered consciousness

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