A - Z Encyclopedia

Understanding Meningitis: Information, Symptoms, Treatment, and Prevention

Symptoms

What Are the Symptoms ofMeningitis?

The illness begins with simple, flu-like symptoms -- sore throat, runny nose, nasal congestion, fever, and sometimes muscle aches.

Very young children often react to the pain by arching their backs uncontrollably. Some forms of meningitis produce a dark red or purplish rash anywhere on the body. In babies, the swelling of the lining of the brain -- the meninges -- may also cause the soft spot on the top of the skull to bulge.

Meningitis symptoms include:

• Fever.
• Severe headache.
• Stiff neck, shoulders, or back.
• Pain with eye movement.
• Severe, shooting pain down the back of the neck, and possibly along the spine, when bending the neck forward.
• Inability to tolerate bright light.
• A bumpy and splotchy dark red or purplish rash anywhere on the body (in certain types of bacterial meningitis).
• Drowsiness and mental confusion.
• Vomiting.
• Seizures and coma.
• Paralysis on one side of the body (in severe cases).
• In infants, a bulge of the soft spot on the skull and an eerie, high-pitched cry.

Call Your Doctor If:

• You develop the symptoms listed above -- particularly a combination of severe headache, stiff neck, and painful aversion to light. Seek emergency medical care immediately.
• Your child develops the symptoms listed above. Seek emergency medical care immediately.

Back to eHealth Encyclopedia