This is a medical emergency.

Meningitis is the inflammation of the meninges, the coverings of the brain and the spinal cord: dura, arachnoid, and pia. It carries a high mortality rate despite medical advances.

Meningitis may be caused by various agents including trauma, chemicals e.g released from tumours and several infectious agents. However, bacterial meningitis represents the best known type of meningitis and perhaps, the most dangerous.

Types
◦ Acute
◦ Chronic
◦ Recurrent
◦ Post-traumatic

Terminologies

◦ Recurrent bacterial meningitis: new episode of bacterial meningitis occurring after a period without clinical or laboratory evidence of meningitis. Recurrence is due to reinfection with the same or different bacterial species rather than to persistence of the original infection.
◦ Recrudescence denotes the reappearance, during therapy, of findings of meningitis and a positive cerebrospinal fluid culture after an initial clinical response and sterilization of the cerebrospinal fluid.
◦ Relapse: reappearance of bacterial meningitis within 3 weeks after completion of the initial course of therapy.
Both recrudescence and relapse are caused by the same organism isolated from the initial episode, and both represent persistence of the initial infection rather than reinfection.

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