How is enterovirus meningitis manifested: symptoms in children

The disease manifests itself in the form of inflammation of the membranes of the brain and spinal cord. Enterovirus meningitis, whose symptoms we will consider today, is called "serous". It is the most common form of CNS damage by Coxsackie A, Coxsackie B viruses and enteroviruses.

Because of the fact that meningitis is highly infectious, outbreaks are possible. Usually similar is observed in the spring and summer periods. And most of all, children from 5 to 9 years old who live in cities and visit children's institutions are infected.

How does enteroviral meningitis occur: symptoms in children

Disputed disease is transmitted through dirty hands, water, food, at the time of coughing, sneezing or just talking with the patient.

The most common signs of meningitis include the following:

• The temperature rises to 40 ° C;
• headache;
• There are desires for vomiting;
• The child's appetite is lost ;
• The stool becomes liquid;
• In the muscles there are painful sensations;
• Shows photophobia and acute reaction to any stimuli;
• The mucous membranes of the pharynx become inflamed.

The main signal for the presence of meningitis is the so-called rigidity of the occipital muscles, that is, the patient can not tilt his head to the chest. When trying to do this, the baby's legs are reflexively reflexed in the knees.

Enterovirus rash (exanthema)

At some children at the given disease on a skin small maroon rashes were found out. As a rule, they were accompanied by sleep disturbances, a runny nose and increased anxiety of the child.

A rash with meningitis in children often resembles rubella and can appear, for example, only on soles, palms, mouth, etc. As a rule, this phenomenon occurs on its own about 5 days after the onset of the disease.

If the course of this infection is of a mild nature, then the disease quickly proceeds and ends with complete recovery, without complications and residual effects.

How meningitis develops in infants

Meningitis in infants is manifested not only by the signs listed above (they, by the way, can be erased) and rigidity of muscles: the fontanel in babies with meningitis becomes convex and bulging.

In general, two to three months old babies are a special risk group for this disease, since the CNS infection with enterovirus at this age is part of the overall systemic disease. With it, the liver, heart, GIT, vessels are affected. A condition resembling bacterial sepsis may develop.

But the fatal outcome in some babies is not associated with CNS damage, but with liver failure developed in the course of disease (with the defeat of the ECHO virus) or myocarditis (with Coxsackie viruses).

Is enteroviral meningitis dangerous?

Symptoms in children with viral and bacterial meningitis are similar. But be aware that the least favorable prognosis may be in purulent (bacterial), and not in viral infection, since the first variety is caused by meningococcus and is a severe disease.

It can be prevented by vaccination, although it must be remembered that it helps only from bacteria, there is no vaccine against the virus.

With untimely begun treatment, the inflammatory process sometimes affects the substance of the brain, and then enterovirus meningitis can become life-threatening. Symptoms in children, discovered by you, is an occasion to urgently consult a doctor!