Meningitis (What a Meningococcal that is!)
Although it remains uncommon, the Meningococcal Meningitis disease is still the leading infectious cause of death of children in the UK. (BMA, 2018)
In 1805 there was an outbreak of a deadly infection swept across Switzerland, this was the first discovery notion of Meningitis. Although it took another 80-odd years for an Austrian chap called Anton Weichselbaum to identify the actual bacteria. It became known as the Neisseria Meningitidis bacteria.
(Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neisseria_meningitidis.)
The Neisseria Meningitidis, often referred to as 'Meningococcus', is a well rounded kind of fellow hence the 'Coccus' name (deriving from the ancient greek description for a grain or seed; not quite a circle, but well rounded. )
Being a gram-negative lifeform, our scientists cannot stain a Meningococcus Bacteria in order to see it. This is due to the cleverly structured peptidoglycan cell walls that act like a protective mesh wall surrounding the bacteria...a barbed wire fence floating on a poisonous moat surrounding a castle if you like. This mesh-moat's protective design for a bacteria is extremely common, found all across the world where life exists, in all types of environments.
It is down to the intricate strengths and designs of this meshy defence system that protect the bacteria from harm and death, having the ability to fend off penetration from our common antibiotics such as penicillin.
Not only does this mesh-defence act as a as a really strong barrier against medical attack weapons, it is cemented together with really strong and flexible "concrete". However, this "concrete" (aka the poisonous moat) is made of a flexible fluid which is highly toxic and super gluey, binding the outer wall of the mesh-defence (barb-wire) together forming an almost indestructable wall.
So when our beloved immune system army throw their spears and fire their boulders at these Meningococcus attackers, they pierce the meshy defence walls which then begin to leak out poisoned moat juice into the body system, which is spread quickly via our veins and blood circulation.
So as you can imagine, it is quite a mission to combat this type of disease.
However, we do have vaccines, and if children are vaccined against Meningitis then they can rest assured that they are protected and safe from future wars against such coccus armies (It's like giving their immune army shields that have specifically been designed to withstand being splattered with bacteria moat poison.)
Unfortunately, many people are still bobbing around thinking of reasons to not get their children vaccined and so the disease is still present, and is still the leader of 'the killing children by infection' championship in our modernised country.
Where does Meningitis live prior to war?
The nasopharyngeal mucosal membrane which lines the mucous cavities in our nose is the reservoir which plays host to the Meningitis Bacteria. 1 in 10 people carry the meningococcus bacteria in their nasal passenges. It commonly exists within us without making a scene. It can be passed onto others without causing any drama. But sometimes, Meningococcus gets a raw deal and so turns against the host.
It is equivalent of finding out that your newly bought house has been secretly suffering from damp and has structure problems which require some H proteins to fix. You ask the old owner to give you some back to compensate for this, as they had failed to inform you of this before you bought your house, but to your dismay, they say they were not aware of the problem, neither were the contractors that surveyed the house, it is a new problem, therefore you are left to deal with it, and cover the costs by yourself. Of course, you would become infuriated.
(Image Source: https://pixabay.com/en/photos/run%20down/)
Meningitus is not something you can catch like a cold. It is not something that becomes airborne and it doesn't spread through casual contact. What happens is, the Meningococcus becomes rather livid and takes up a quarm with certain hosts.
When its house is a miserable, dank, run-down and shabby place, making the bacteria feel like shit as it is being forced to live in a poor and unstable environment, all it can do is fight for a better future. Without an official governing body who can listen and sort such a dispute, it decides to protest and wage a civil war.
The bacteria decides to put its foot down and refuses to go with the local flows. It drills deep into the ground in order to anchor down the property and the poisonous water from its mesh-moat starts to drain out into the body vessels and system.
What is so deadly about it?
We humans are presented with flu-like symptoms, runny and blocked nose, sore throats and high fevers, with extra doses of tense muscles, headaches, nausea and vomiting. So you can imagine how easily this disease can be overlooked and mis-interpreted as the flu or similar lurgys. In fact, meningococcus can only be spotted from a bacterial culture of a patient’s cerebral spinal fluid.
Meningococcus is a rapid advancing bacteria with the ability to cause to two major problems within the human body system: Meningitis; which causes the brain's cranial nerves to mis-fire and cause pain and confusion with various processings (The equivalent of the government being hacked and data being breached and manipulated causing public service disruptions and riots) and also Sepsis; which is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. (This would be the equivalent of the poisoned soldiers from the immune system army coming back home to regain some energy but then accidentally infecting the entire village by bringing back traces of the moat poison).
These attacks are more prone to occur at the same time, working together trying to bash down the system from both ends, but if Sepsis (the attack stemming from poisoned soldiers) occurs without Meningitis's loud and noticeable HQ hassles, it can be much more stealthy and dangerous. (Like when hundreds of tribes attack little villages killing off areas one by one, nobody tends to notice until the big cities get hit and the government gets involved). The outcome of having Meningitis where only Sepsis is ocurring will usually result in death as it becomes too late in time to detect and defend against.
Those with more fulminant illness will be critically ill within the first 24 hours, leaving a very narrow window of opportunity to deliver life-saving treatment - meningitis.org
If 95% of the population were carrying Meningitis in there noses, only 1% would feel the wrath of an infection. And of that 1% infected, 5% of those would be female as it has something to do with hormones and the balances (or imbalances) of....which can be caused by oh-so-many different things (lack or excess of vitamins and imbalanced gut bacteria etc)
Children and babies are more prone to get Meningitis because they have an extra amounts and levels of bacterias that live within their body systems. These "good" and "bad" bacterias which are handed down from their parents are vital and useful tools for allowing the children to build and expand their body systems, but this overcrowding of life, once infected, can quickly turn into an epidemic.
Without prompt diagnosis and treatment, Meningococcus Meningitis is most often fatal, and, if not, results in serious permanent damages to the body system.
And yet,
A national MRF-funded study found that almost 50% of children presenting to GPs with the Meningococcal disease were sent home on their first visit and that these children were more likely to die.
It is vital that our medical teams become more aware of what to look for and if in doubt, ask for a second opinion.
What to look for?
The key symptoms to watch out for in recognizing meningitis are headaches (intense light seering the eyes kind of ones mixed in with a constant background headache buzz, stiff neck and muscles, sensitivity to bright lights where the eyes feel almost in pain at having to be opened and used, and a deep red rash on top of paled skin. (If you roll a glass cup over the rash and it takes longer than 2 seconds to get its colour back, it could be a sign of meningitus)
Limbs will start to ache, hands and feet will grow cold. It will hurt to move as the entire body system has no choice but to shut down in hope for a successful reset.
Early signs of circulatory shutdown and shock include pale or mottled skin and cold hands and feet due to vasoconstriction, and prolonged capillary refill, tachycardia, and fast or laboured breathing.
Meningococcus can kill a healthy person of any age within hours of the first symptoms.
If you are lucky, you survive with minor problems such as suffering from cold limbs for life and reductions in brain land, such as becoming more prone to mental health conditions like depression or anxiety (probably due to thinnened walls of veins).
A more doomy yet rather common outcome will be losing a limb completely. This happens when the diagnosis for Meningitis is slow and / or the host is weak in battle. And as mentioned already, death is another common outcome because it all happens so quick and it all depends of timings and management of the disease.
Conclusion
It is vital to protect your children and have them vaccinated against Meningitis. In most countries this is cheap, if not free!) to do and people need to stop having opinions on this matter if that opinion deters them from protecting their children. It is everyone's children who can potentially suffer just because one person disagrees with the notion of vaccination. It is selfish and incorrect. Get over your issues and think of the children.
Take note of the symptoms and do your best to be aware of the condition so you can push your Doctor to look harder if you think they are misdiagnosing the situation.
Dont be afraid to ask for a 2nd opinion. Dont feel guilty about it either.
If you feel the illness is not ordinary, do all you can to find out why, force your doctors to review, and in all extreme worrying cases just go straight to hospital for further medical attention.
I hope one day, to see the back of ole Meningococcus as it blobs away into the distance, realising that there is no place or purpose for it to exist in this world any longer.
The End
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neisseria_meningitidis
https://www.meningitis.org/getmedia/cf777153-9427-4464-89e2-fb58199174b6/gp_booklet-UK-sept-16
http://www.austincc.edu/microbio/2704w/nm.htm