Meningitis: What to Know and When to Seek Care

Hear­ing about menin­gi­tis cas­es in your com­mu­ni­ty can be unset­tling — and right now, there’s good rea­son to pay atten­tion. Nation­al­ly, meningo­coc­cal dis­ease cas­es have reached their high­est lev­els since 2013, and clos­er to home, the Chica­go Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health recent­ly issued an alert fol­low­ing two deaths and an above-aver­age clus­ter of cas­es this win­ter. While menin­gi­tis is rare — affect­ing less than 1 in 100,000 peo­ple annu­al­ly in the U.S. — it can become seri­ous fast. The good news is that many cas­es are treat­able, and you can take fun­da­men­tal steps to pro­tect your­self and your fam­i­ly. Here’s what you need to know about symp­toms, when to seek care, and how to pre­vent it. 

What Is Meningitis? 

Menin­gi­tis occurs when the thin lay­ers of tis­sue that pro­tect your brain and spinal cord become inflamed. These pro­tec­tive lay­ers are called the meninges. When they swell and become irri­tat­ed, symp­toms can appear quick­ly. Most of the time, an infec­tion trig­gers menin­gi­tis, which is caused by virus­es, bac­te­ria, or, rarely, fun­gi. Less com­mon­ly, it devel­ops because of autoim­mune con­di­tions, cer­tain med­ica­tions, or injuries. 

Types of Meningitis 

The cause deter­mines how severe menin­gi­tis is and what treat­ment you’ll need.

Viral menin­gi­tis is most com­mon and often less severe. Many peo­ple recov­er with rest and sup­port­ive care.

Bac­te­r­i­al menin­gi­tis is less com­mon but far more dan­ger­ous. It can esca­late fast and requires urgent antibi­ot­ic treatment.

Fun­gal menin­gi­tis is rare and typ­i­cal­ly affects peo­ple with weak­ened immune systems.

Non-infec­tious menin­gi­tis can be linked to autoim­mune dis­eases, cer­tain can­cers, med­ica­tion reac­tions, or injuries. 

Menin­gi­tis Symp­toms: What to Watch For 

Menin­gi­tis can start out feel­ing like a cold, flu, or stom­ach bug, which makes it tricky to spot ear­ly. Symp­toms can wors­en quick­ly, though, espe­cial­ly with bac­te­r­i­al meningitis. 

In teens and adults

The clas­sic signs are fever, severe headache, and stiff neck. You might also expe­ri­ence sen­si­tiv­i­ty to light, nau­sea or vom­it­ing, unusu­al fatigue, con­fu­sion, trou­ble con­cen­trat­ing, or, in severe cas­es, seizures.

Many peo­ple ini­tial­ly think it’s just a virus. The dif­fer­ence is that menin­gi­tis symp­toms tend to inten­si­fy rather than lev­el off. Red flags include neck stiff­ness paired with fever, con­fu­sion, or light sensitivity.

In babies and young children

Infants and small chil­dren can’t tell you what hurts, so watch for fever, unusu­al fussi­ness, poor feed­ing, vom­it­ing, extreme sleepi­ness or trou­ble wak­ing up, a stiff or flop­py body, or a bulging soft spot on the head.

If your child seems ​“off” in a way you can’t name, trust that instinct and call for med­ical guidance. 

When Menin­gi­tis Is an Emergency 

Some symp­toms should nev­er be wait­ed out. Get emer­gency care right away if you or some­one you’re with has a fever com­bined with severe headache and stiff neck, con­fu­sion or dif­fi­cul­ty stay­ing awake, seizures, symp­toms that sud­den­ly wors­en, a rash (espe­cial­ly one that spreads quick­ly), or dif­fi­cul­ty breathing.

Menin­gi­tis can progress fast. Even with prompt antibi­ot­ic treat­ment, about 10% to 15% of peo­ple with bac­te­r­i­al menin­gi­tis die. Ear­ly treat­ment makes a sig­nif­i­cant difference. 

“Menin­gi­tis is a seri­ous con­di­tion with symp­toms that often over­lap with more com­mon, benign ill­ness­es, which can make ear­ly recog­ni­tion chal­leng­ing. Prompt eval­u­a­tion and treat­ment sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve outcomes. 

At Duly Health and Care, our approach empha­sizes both pre­ven­tion and rapid inter­ven­tion, includ­ing com­pre­hen­sive pre­ven­tive ser­vices such as vac­ci­na­tion against menin­gi­tis. From emer­gency eval­u­a­tion to diag­nos­tic test­ing and treat­ment, our team works quick­ly and col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly to deliv­er time­ly, evi­dence-based care with close fol­low-up, as pre­vent­ing menin­gi­tis is equal­ly impor­tant as treat­ing it.” 

— Dr. Sumaira Jabeen, Fam­i­ly Med­i­cine physi­cian with Duly

What Caus­es Menin­gi­tis, and Is It Contagious?

Menin­gi­tis usu­al­ly devel­ops when a virus, bac­te­ria, fun­gus, or rarely a par­a­site infects the meninges. Less com­mon­ly, it’s trig­gered by autoim­mune con­di­tions, inflam­ma­to­ry dis­eases, cer­tain med­ica­tions, or head injuries.

Some forms are con­ta­gious, some aren’t. The con­ta­gious types spread through close con­tact, such as kiss­ing, shar­ing drinks or uten­sils, liv­ing in the same house­hold, or pro­longed expo­sure to some­one’s cough or sneeze droplets. Casu­al con­tact, like pass­ing some­one in a store, does­n’t typ­i­cal­ly spread meningitis.

Who Is at High­er Risk?

Any­one can get menin­gi­tis, but cer­tain groups face a high­er risk:

• Infants and young children
• Teens and young adults (espe­cial­ly those in dorms)
• Peo­ple with weak­ened immune systems
• Any­one who has­n’t received rec­om­mend­ed vaccines
• Peo­ple who’ve been in close con­tact with some­one diag­nosed with cer­tain types of bac­te­r­i­al meningitis

Not sure if you or your child is at high­er risk? A Duly provider can review your health his­to­ry to help deter­mine this. Sched­ule a vis­it today > 

How Doc­tors Diag­nose Meningitis

Your provider will do a phys­i­cal exam (includ­ing check­ing for neck stiff­ness), order blood tests, and often per­form a lum­bar punc­ture — a spinal tap that tests your spinal flu­id. This con­firms whether menin­gi­tis is present, iden­ti­fies the type, and guides treatment.

Treat­ment Options

Treat­ment depends on the cause, and time matters.

Bac­te­r­i­al menin­gi­tis is a med­ical emer­gency requir­ing IV antibi­otics, some­times IV steroids, hos­pi­tal­iza­tion, and close mon­i­tor­ing. Ear­ly treat­ment reduces the risk of seri­ous complications.

Viral menin­gi­tis is often treat­ed with rest, hydra­tion, fever and pain con­trol, and symp­tom mon­i­tor­ing. Some cas­es require antivi­ral med­ica­tions depend­ing on the virus. 

Pos­si­ble Complications

Many peo­ple recov­er ful­ly with quick treat­ment. But menin­gi­tis — par­tic­u­lar­ly bac­te­r­i­al — can lead to hear­ing loss, learn­ing or mem­o­ry prob­lems, seizures, bal­ance issues, or nerve dam­age. Among sur­vivors of meningo­coc­cal dis­ease, approx­i­mate­ly one in five lives with per­ma­nent dis­abil­i­ties. This is why wait­ing out severe symp­toms is risky.

Pre­ven­tion

Vac­cines pro­tect against sev­er­al bac­te­ria that cause menin­gi­tis, includ­ing meningo­coc­cal vac­cines (typ­i­cal­ly giv­en dur­ing ado­les­cence), Hib vac­cine (giv­en in ear­ly child­hood), and pneu­mo­coc­cal vac­cines (rec­om­mend­ed for spe­cif­ic age groups and risk fac­tors). If you’re unsure whether you or your child is up to date, your pri­ma­ry care provider can review your immu­niza­tion his­to­ry. Beyond vac­cines, you can:

• Wash your hands regularly
• Don’t share drinks or utensils
• Avoid close con­tact when sick
• Reach out to your provider if you’ve been exposed to a con­firmed case

Book an appoint­ment with a Duly Fam­i­ly Med­i­cine physi­cian today to review your family’s immu­niza­tion his­to­ry > 

When to See a Doctor

Call your doc­tor if you have a per­sis­tent fever and headache, wors­en­ing symp­toms, or if you’ve been exposed to some­one with menin­gi­tis. Go to imme­di­ate care or the ER if symp­toms are severe, you have neck stiff­ness, you feel con­fused or unusu­al­ly sleepy, or symp­toms came on sud­den­ly and intense­ly. Not sure where to go? Call your care team for guidance.

Final Take­away

Menin­gi­tis is rare but can be seri­ous, espe­cial­ly bac­te­r­i­al menin­gi­tis. Know the warn­ing signs, under­stand when to seek emer­gency care, and stay up to date on rec­om­mend­ed vac­cines. If you’re con­cerned about symp­toms or expo­sure, get eval­u­at­ed ear­ly — it makes a difference.

Ques­tions about menin­gi­tis symp­toms, vac­cines, or whether you should be eval­u­at­ed? A Duly Fam­i­ly Med­i­cine provider can review your symp­toms, dis­cuss your risk, and guide you on the next steps. 

Sched­ule an appoint­ment today with Dr. Jabeen or anoth­er Duly pri­ma­ry care provider >