Posts tagged meningitis

Cerebrospinal meningitis due to influenza bacillus This 4-month-old was suspected to have developed meningitis due to the influenza bacillus crossing into the brain either by the frontal sinus (which is thin to begin with, but extremely delicate in young children), or through the nasopharyngeal lymph channels near the base of the brain.  The brain was found to be partially covered in a muco-purulent exudate, with a large necrotic patch in the right frontal lobe. The infant had several seizures during the course of the illness, but it was suspected that they were febrile seizures (caused by high fever and not uncommon in babies), and unrelated to the necrosis of the frontal lobe. The bacterial infiltration of the cortex was suspected to have blocked one or more blood vessels, causing a stroke. Influenza may not be killing off 5% of our population every year like it did in 1918 (which was after this case and, interestingly, spared the frail and killed the healthy), but it’s still a fatal disease to many infants and elderly patients. And really, even the healthiest person can come down with really awful complications from the yearly flu virus. It just happens to be much more prevalent in those whose bodies are not fully capable of fighting off infection. So if you’ve had the flu recently, and felt awful and unable to breathe and your body hurt like you had been sleeping on a bed of lumpy rocks, you probably can see where bad complications can come from. But if you never get the flu or haven’t had it in ages, don’t think it’s just some little thing, or just like a bad cold or something. It’s something that’s actually worth going out of your way to protect yourself (and those around you) from! Diseases of Infancy and Childhood. Louis Fischer, 1917.

Cerebrospinal meningitis due to influenza bacillus

This 4-month-old was suspected to have developed meningitis due to the influenza bacillus crossing into the brain either by the frontal sinus (which is thin to begin with, but extremely delicate in young children), or through the nasopharyngeal lymph channels near the base of the brain. 

The brain was found to be partially covered in a muco-purulent exudate, with a large necrotic patch in the right frontal lobe. The infant had several seizures during the course of the illness, but it was suspected that they were febrile seizures (caused by high fever and not uncommon in babies), and unrelated to the necrosis of the frontal lobe. The bacterial infiltration of the cortex was suspected to have blocked one or more blood vessels, causing a stroke.

Influenza may not be killing off 5% of our population every year like it did in 1918 (which was after this case and, interestingly, spared the frail and killed the healthy), but it’s still a fatal disease to many infants and elderly patients. And really, even the healthiest person can come down with really awful complications from the yearly flu virus. It just happens to be much more prevalent in those whose bodies are not fully capable of fighting off infection.

So if you’ve had the flu recently, and felt awful and unable to breathe and your body hurt like you had been sleeping on a bed of lumpy rocks, you probably can see where bad complications can come from. But if you never get the flu or haven’t had it in ages, don’t think it’s just some little thing, or just like a bad cold or something. It’s something that’s actually worth going out of your way to protect yourself (and those around you) from!

Diseases of Infancy and Childhood. Louis Fischer, 1917.

With all of the news hubbub about the brain-eating amoeba from Louisiana (Naegleria fowleri), I was wondering if there's any historical information about it? Apologies if this has been asked before! — Asked by bittergrapes

In fairness to Louisiana, Naegleria fowleri is all over the place ;P Actually, its prevalence in LA is lower than in many other water-logged states, since their coastal marshes are bracken water, and N. fowleri doesn’t like the ocean (though clearly it’s fine with salt, given the neti pot incidents).

As for its history, N. fowleri is a relative newcomer to the stage of Things That Can Kill You, at least in terms of our knowledge of it. R.F. Carter and M. Fowler discovered it in 1965, down in Australia. It was actually used as the example to prove the hypothesis that there were highly adaptive amoebo-flagellates out there that could live both 100% freely in the environment, as well as establish themselves within the human body, when given the opportunity and loss of original environment. You know, like when one introduces a liquid into the sinuses and the amoeba gets caught on something, and it doesn’t get washed out. It’s lost its initial environment (which it would prefer to stay in, since adaptation to a new environment is physically demanding), but it can still survive just fine.

Meningitis from amoebas (Primary Amoebic Meningitis - PAM) like what N. fowleri causes hasn’t been known for too long, either. Though the pathogenicity of Entamoeba histolyca (the source of amoebic dysentery) was established back in 1875, the fact that it could establish itself in the central nervous system and cause such rapid death wasn’t known until I believe the Korean war, though I’m not positive on that fact. Either way, we didn’t know amoebas were such nasty bugs (even if they DID already kill us with dysentery) until the mid-20th century or so.

Radiograph of disseminated tuberculosis. Child was suffering from tubercular meningitis. Diseases of Infancy and Childhood: Their Dietetic, Hygienic, and Medical Treatment. Dr. Louis Fischer, 1917.

Radiograph of disseminated tuberculosis. Child was suffering from tubercular meningitis.

Diseases of Infancy and Childhood: Their Dietetic, Hygienic, and Medical Treatment. Dr. Louis Fischer, 1917.