Disease Information for Chronic Meningitis Syndrome

chronic or indolent meningitis has a slow onset atypical presentation with more cognitive, psychotic, behavioral changes and pressure effects with headache, relentless often slow decline with torpor, slow decline or slow resolution; fungal, luetic,tuberculous, sarcoid, Behcets, lupus, angiitis syndromes are usual cause with or without HIV/AIDS; meningeal carcinomatosis/lymphoma metabolic and other encephalitides included---------------------

Ongoing (chronic) forms of meningitis occur when slow-growing organisms invade the membranes and fluid surrounding your brain; Although acute meningitis strikes suddenly, chronic meningitis develops over four weeks or more;Nevertheless, the signs and symptoms of chronic meningitis — headaches, fever, vomiting and mental cloudiness — are similar to those of acute meningitis;This type of meningitis is rare; TBC most common worldwide but after this Fungal meningitis usually than others in AIDS and chemotherapy and organ transplant or steroid dosing make patients at risk ; Fungal meningitis is relatively uncommon;Cryptococcal meningitis is a fungal form of the disease that affects people with immune deficiencies, such as AIDS;It"s life-threatening if not treated with an antifungal medication. Other causes: Meningitis can also result from noninfectious causes, such as drug allergies, some types of cancer and inflammatory diseases such as lupus.

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Chronic meningitis is inflammation of the meninges that lasts a month or longer; Chronic meningitis affects people whose immune system is impaired because of AIDS, cancer, use of chemotherapy, or long-term use of the corticosteroid prednisone; However, tuberculosis, Lyme disease, or another infection can cause chronic meningitis in people whose immune system is functioning competently; The distinction between acute and chronic meningitis is not always clear, and sometimes the meningitis is described as subacute instead, especially inadequately treated bacterial meningitis;

Some infectious organisms invade the brain or the meninges and multiply slowly over weeks, months, or even years;Such organisms include Cryptococcus fungus (in people with an impaired immune system, such as those with AIDS) and the bacteria that cause tuberculosis, syphilis, or Lyme disease; Acute bacterial meningitis that has been partially treated but not eliminated by antibiotics may evolve into chronic meningitis; Some noninfectious disorders, such as sarcoidosis and some cancers (leukemia, lymphoma, brain tumors, and metastases to the brain), can invade and irritate the meninges, producing chronic meningitis; Chemotherapy drugs that are injected directly into the cerebrospinal fluid (such as methotrexate/RHEUMATREX

), drugs used in organ transplantation (such as cyclosporine/SANDIMMUNE/NEORAL and OKT3muromonab-CD3), and even nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen/ADVIL,MOTRIN, NUPRIN.: Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs can inflame the meninges, leading to chronic meningitis;

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