This paper will cover the history of bacterial meningitis including origins of the disease, the first recorded discovery and first outbreaks. This paper also evaluates new research on bacterial meningitis and how it is affecting people with modern day technology and medicine. According to an article by David Spencer, MD, Meningitis is an infection or inflammation of the coverings of the brain called the “meninges.” He also states that bacterial meningitis is one of the common types of meningitis (Spencer 2010). Bacterial meninges is evidently when bacteria enters the brain and is absorbed into the meninges. Research is shown that there are a few different types of bacteria that can cause this specific meningitis involving Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae which is the most prevalent.
It is also important to note that Bacterial Meningitis is often seen in children and infants, due to the fact that people in their adulthood will have fully developed immune systems that are strong enough to fight infections. Recently, it has now become a requirement for children to get vaccines due to their high risks. Bacterial meningitis usually requires a medical diagnosis but there are symptoms that might obtain to one having the disease including pain in the neck region, headaches, fever, and other symptoms similar to other nervous system diseases. As stated to diagnose bacterial meningitis medical assistance is necessary and tests can be done using spinal fluid to examine the bacteria. These tests are products of new technology that show the advancement of medicine and research.
History
As reported by Koehler Uiterwijk in his Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, he believes that although meningitis was not known as such some centuries ago, there were many theories about the origins of brain diseases (Uiterwijk et al. 2012). Considering that most medical reports can date back pretty far the first cases of Bacterial meningitis appeared in infants. For the most part, there are cases further back that could be considering Bacterial meningitis but as the result of the times and lack of knowledge and technology, one could argue that these cases were accidentally mistaken for other diseases. It's highly possible in times such as the eighteenth century before the more larger cases of meningitis was seen, that there were other people suffering from this but was not could not have been identified. Overall it's important to take from this paper that Bacterial meningitis will have more recent research on it because of it being falsely diagnosed in the past. Studies state "Gaspard Vieusseux was probably the first physician to describe the epidemic meningitis that took place in Europe, which took place in 1805 and killed around 30 people (Uiterwijk et al. 2012)." This was not the last it was seen in Europe in larger quantities, in fact, there were a few instances after this that took place in Europe that really got doctors involved in learning more about the disease. It seemed that most of the widespread cases that we see in other countries can be linked to the origin of Europe which could suggest that it was spread from European travelers. This was definitely prevalent in the United States. Which actually contradicts early research because most doctors thought that the disease wasn't contagious.Studies stated "Gaspard Vieusseux was probably the first physician to describe the epidemic meningitis that took place in Europe, which took place in 1805 and killed around 30 people (Uiterwijk et al. 2012)." This was not the last it was seen in Europe in larger quantities, in fact, there were a few instances after this that took place in Europe that really got doctors involved in learning more about the disease.
It seemed that most of the widespread cases that we see in other countries can be linked to the origin of Europe which could suggest that it was spread from European travelers. This was definitely prevalent in the United States. Which actually contradicts early research because most doctors thought that the disease wasn't contagious. Originally it was believed that the disease could also be air born or that it could be contracted by some type of toxin in the air. This was obviously disproven in later years. Especially when doctors and scientist became more involved in identifying different types of bacteria and how they can affect the body.
Current Research
Even today in most third world countries that wouldn't have the same access to medicine or technology being able to the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis is still seen as a complication. That being said there has been more discoveries over the years that have increased our knowledge of the disease. Throughout the years, scientists have come to the conclusion that most meningitis diseases are fairly harmless with proper treatment but it seems that for Bacterial meningitis this not the case, and can be deadly. Recent research of bacterial meningitis has been directed at figuring out how to kill the bacteria once it's in the meninges and stopping the inflammation. Documentation by Bianca Woehrl cites "According to the European Federation of Neurologic Societies (EFNS) guidelines, the combination of Bacteriolytic-lactam antibiotics together with corticosteroids is being used to treat adult patients with bacterial meningitis (Woehrl et al. 2011).” Unfortunately, this treatments aren’t always effective and new techniques have been considered and still looked into. Now, fortunately, the number of cases involving have gone down due to vaccines that target pathogens that cause the bacteria found in this disease.
Commonly due to more vaccines its suggestive that bacterial meningitis differs in correspondence to other risk factors due to it still being extensive. Similarly, in benefit because of vaccines, there is most types of meningitis like for example the type caused by the bacteria influenzae has overall declined in the States. Other types of bacterial meningitis that are caused by bacteria including Streptococcus which is usually found in infants after brith has also declined because of the use of penicillin. Inclusively, vaccinations have played a major role in the drop in instances were Bacterial meningitis is prevalent. In emergency medicine reports it states “The overall effect of these immunizations resulted in approximately 4100 cases per year of bacterial meningitis in the United States from 2003 to 2007, with 500 fatalities annually (Glauser et al. 2015).” Additionally, other scientists have suggested other methods to “curing” the disease once the bacteria is already present. Few Clinical Microbiologists have suggested " animal experiments are needed to compare their efficacy to the current standard of adjuvant therapy, dexamethasone. Also, studies on the long-term effects and the use in meningitis caused by pathogens have to be performed. Finally, special pharmacologic issues for each of the agents have to be investigated which will represent a promising approach to successful treatment of bacterial meningitis (Brouwer et al. 2012)”. Lastly, In bacterial meningitis treatments given in early stages are going to be determining factors in increasing the chance of survival.
Summary
It would be helpful if the emphasis of future research would focus on using penicillin-like antibiotics since it's so effective during labor.