Meningitis: signs in children, incubation period, types of disease
Meningitis is a disease that most oftenoccurs in childhood, when infection (virus, bacteria, fungus) is most easily overcome protective barriers that protect the brain, trigger the onset of inflammation on the very closest to it shell. More often the disease occurs in children born with the pathology of the brain (hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, intrauterine brain damage with cytomegalovirus or Epstein-Barr virus), as well as in prematurity. Babies who have an inborn defect of any of the immunity units also have a much greater chance of suffering meningitis. Symptoms of
Where does meningitis come from?
Disease in a child can develop as a complicationpurulent otitis, rhinitis, sinusitis, sinusitis (secondary meningitis, the signs of which children should be carefully monitored if the child suffers such a disease). There is a variant of the development of meningitis as complications of viral diseases, such as measles, SARS, chicken pox, rubella, mumps, enterovirus infection. The most dangerous is meningococcal meningitis, which can be infected:
- from the carrier of the microbe (that is, the person who feels healthy);
- from an adult or a child who carries meningococcal nasopharyngitis (red throat and purulent discharge from the nose, accompanied by a rise in temperature for 1-3 days);
- from a patient whose bacterium has caused inflammation of the membranes of the brain.
The most dangerous is this meningitis. The incubation period of it is 2-3 days. Then there are symptoms, one of the characteristic signs of which is hemorrhagic rash, described below.
Children, like adults, can say that they haveheadache. Also, parents notice that the child has fever. But if the baby is not talking yet, how can you suspect meningitis? Signs in children of this disease are:
1. The child becomes more sluggish, sleepy.
2. Vomiting may occur, regardless of the meal.
3. Increased body temperature.
4. Babies can be seen swelling of the large fontanelle (in norm it is located on one level with the bones of the skull).
5. The child takes a stretched pose in bed, often at the same time throws back his head.
6. Negatively reacts to bright light, loud sounds, music.
7. Refuses to eat, sleepy.
8. There may be convulsions with a violation of consciousness and stopping breathing at any (even up to 38 degrees) body temperature.
9. If you raise the baby for the armpits, he will pull the legs to his chest.
10. When meningococcal and some other meningitis on the body (primarily on the buttocks and legs), a rash appears dark. It can be lilac, brown, dark red. Its characteristic feature is that if you press on the stain with a transparent container (glass, jar) or glass, it does not turn pale. This means that the skin in this place was soaked with blood.
A rash that has such characteristics acquires a tendency to merge with each other, as well as to the appearance in some places of necrosis (necrosis) of the skin and underlying tissues.
In case you see some suspiciousRash, especially against a background of fever, promptly call for an ambulance. Even if it is not meningitis, signs in children of a nature such as a rash are an excuse for hospitalization and treatment in an infectious hospital.
