Symptoms of Meningitis

List of symptoms of Meningitis:

The list of signs and symptoms mentioned in various sources for Meningitis includes the 49 symptoms listed below:

• Symptoms of meningitis:
  • High fever
  • Severe headache
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Photophobia
  • Sound sensitivity
  • Stiff neck
  • Pain on moving neck
  • Stiff muscles
  • Alertness changes
    • Lethargy
    • Difficulty waking up
    • Sleepiness
    • Lethargy
    • Tiredness
    • Confusion
    • Reduced alertness
  • Irritability
  • Kernig's sign - inability to straighten knees in front of body
  • Inability to straighten knees
  • Confusion
  • Convulsions
  • Shock
  • Coma
• Possible symptoms of infant meningitis:
  • Fever - although fever may be absent in infants
  • Headache - often hard to detect in an infant
  • Irritability
  • Poor feeding
  • Refusing feeds
  • Fretfulness
  • Dislike of handling
  • Neck stiffness - though difficult to identify in newborn except by other behaviors like neck retraction or back arching.
  • Retracting neck
  • Arching back
  • High pitched crying
  • Whimpering
  • Lethargy
  • Tiredness
  • Difficulty waking
  • Staring expression
  • Vomiting
  • Bulging fontanel
  • Seizures
  • Poor muscle tone
  • Jaundice
  • Diarrhea
• Prior antibiotic treatment reduces symptom severity

Note that Meningitis symptoms usually refers to various symptoms known to a patient, but the phrase Meningitis signs may refer to those signs only noticable by a doctor.

More ways to research these symptoms: To research other symptoms use the symptom center, or to research causes of more than one symptom in combination, try our multi-symptom search.

Research More About Meningitis

Do I have Meningitis?

• Meningitis: Introduction
• Meningitis: Diagnostic Testing to confirm diagnosis
• Alternative diagnoses and misdiagnosis for Meningitis
• Failure to Diagnose Meningitis
• Hidden Causes of Meningitis
• How serious is it?
• Treatments for Meningitis
• More about Meningitis

Wrongly Diagnosed with Meningitis?

The list of other diseases or medical conditions that may be on the differential diagnosis list of alternative diagnoses for Meningitis includes:

• Encephalitis
• Meningoencephalitis
• Flu - because meningitis has early flu-like symptoms
• Viral infections - another cause of flu-like symptoms.
• Subarachnoid haemorrhage

See the full list of 34 alternative diagnoses for Meningitis

More about symptoms of Meningitis:

More information about symptoms of Meningitis and related conditions:

• Other diseases with similar symptoms and common misdiagnoses
• Tests to determine if these are the symptoms of Meningitis
• Symptoms that may be caused by complications of Meningitis
• Underlying causes of Meningitis
• Risk factors for Meningitis

Other Possible Causes of these Symptoms

Click on any of the symptoms below to see a full list of other causes including diseases, medical conditions, toxins, drug interactions, or drug side effect causes of that symptom.

• Alertness changes - see all causes of Unresponsiveness
• Coma - see all causes of Coma
• Confusion - see all causes of Confusion
• Confusion - see all causes of Confusion
• Convulsions - see all causes of Convulsions
• Diarrhea - see all causes of Diarrhea
• Difficulty waking - see all causes of Drowsiness
• Difficulty waking up - see all causes of Drowsiness
• Fever - see all causes of Fever
• Fretfulness - see all causes of Fretfulness
• Headache - see all causes of Headache
• High fever - see all causes of High fever
• High pitched crying - see all causes of Crying infant
• Inability to straighten knees - see all causes of Stiff knee
• Irritability - see all causes of Irritability
• Irritability - see all causes of Irritability
• Jaundice - see all causes of Jaundice
• Kernig's sign - see all causes of Kernig's sign
• Lethargy - see all causes of Lethargy
• Lethargy - see all causes of Lethargy
• Lethargy - see all causes of Lethargy
• Nausea - see all causes of Nausea
• Neck stiffness - see all causes of Neck stiffness
• Pain on moving neck - see all causes of Neck pain
• Photophobia - see all causes of Photophobia
• Poor feeding - see all causes of Poor feeding
• Poor muscle tone - see all causes of Muscle weakness
• Prior antibiotic treatment reduces symptom severity
• Reduced alertness - see all causes of Reduced alertness
• Refusing feeds - see all causes of Poor feeding
• Retracting neck - see all causes of Neck symptoms
• Seizures - see all causes of Seizures
• Severe headache - see all causes of Severe headache
• Shock - see all causes of Shock
• Sleepiness - see all causes of Drowsiness
• Sound sensitivity - see all causes of Sensitive hearing
• Staring expression - see all causes of Lack of facial expression
• Stiff muscles - see all causes of Stiff muscles
• Stiff neck - see all causes of Stiff neck
• Tiredness - see all causes of Tiredness
• Tiredness - see all causes of Tiredness
• Vomiting - see all causes of Vomiting
• Vomiting - see all causes of Vomiting
• Whimpering - see all causes of Crying infant

Medical Books Online about Meningitis

Medical Books Excerpts Excerpts of published medical book chapters related to Meningitis are available from published medical books for more detailed information about Meningitis.

Copyright notice for book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

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Symptoms of Meningitis: Online Medical Books

16 MEDICAL BOOKS ONLINE! Review excerpts from medical books online, free, without registration, for more information about the symptoms of Meningitis.

Headache: Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Initially, migraine headaches usually produce unilateral, pulsating pain, which later becomes more generalized. They’re commonly preceded by a scintillating scotoma, hemianopsia, unilateral paresthesia, or speech disorders. The patient may experience irritability, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, and photophobia. (See Clinical features of migraine headaches.)

Both muscle contraction and traction-inflammatory vascular headaches produce a dull, persistent ache, tender spots on the head and neck, and a feeling of tightness around the head, with a characteristic “hatband” distribution. The pain is usually severe and unrelenting. If caused by intracranial bleeding, these headaches may result in neurologic deficits, such as paresthesia and muscle weakness; narcotics may fail to relieve pain in these cases. If caused by a tumor, pain is most severe when the patient awakens.

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Meningococcal infections: Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Features of meningococcal bacteremia include sudden spiking fever, headache, sore throat, cough, chills, myalgia (in back and legs), arthralgia, tachycardia, tachypnea, mild hypotension, and a petechial, nodular, or maculopapular rash. Headache and stiff neck can also occur as the infection extends to the meninges.

In about 10% to 20% of patients, the disease progresses to fulminating meningococcemia, with extreme prostration, enlargement of skin lesions, disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), and shock. Without prompt treatment, death from respiratory or heart failure occurs in 6 to 24 hours.

Characteristics of the rare chronic meningococcemia include intermittent fever, rash, joint pain, and an enlarged spleen.

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Meningitis: Signs and Symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Nuchal rigidity, Brudzinski’s and Kernig’s signs, exaggerated deep tendon reflexes, opisthotonos, sinus arrhythmias, irritability, photophobia, deep stupor, coma

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West Nile encephalitis: Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Mild infections of the virus are more common and include fever, headache, and body aches, usually accompanied by a skin rash and swollen lymph glands. Severe infections can be manifested by headache, high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, occasional convulsions, paralysis and, rarely, death.

The incubation period for West Nile encephalitis is anywhere from 5 to 15 days after exposure. Most patients who are bitten by an infected mosquito won’t develop symptoms. It's estimated that only 1 in 300 people who are bitten by an infected mosquito will actually get sick.

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Encephalitis: Signs and Symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Sudden onset of fever, headache, vomiting, meningeal irritation (stiff neck and back), drowsiness, coma, paralysis, seizures, ataxia, psychoses

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Headache: Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)

Migraine headaches and muscle contraction headaches have different signs and symptoms.

Migraine headache

Initially, a migraine headache usually produces unilateral, pulsating pain that later becomes more generalized. The headache is commonly preceded by a scintillating scotoma, hemianopsia, unilateral paresthesia, or speech disorders. The patient may experience irritability, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, and photophobia. (See Clinical features of headache, page 364.)

Muscle contraction headache

A muscle contraction headache produces a dull, persistent ache; tender spots on the head and neck; and a feeling of tightness around the head, with a characteristic “hatband” distribution. The pain is usually severe and unrelenting.

If caused by intracranial bleeding, the muscle contraction headache may result in neurologic deficits, such as paresthesia and muscle weakness; narcotics fail to relieve the pain in these cases. If the headache is caused by a tumor, pain is most severe when the patient awakens.

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West Nile encephalitis: Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)

Mild WNV infections are more common than severe infections and include symptoms such as fever, headache, and body aches, often accompanied by swollen lymph glands and a skin rash. Severe infections present with symptoms such as headache, high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, occasional convulsions, paralysis and, rarely, death.

The incubation period for West Nile encephalitis is 5 to 15 days after exposure.

CLINICAL TIP: Researchers estimate that only 1 in 300 people who are bitten by a mosquito infected with WNV actually develops the disease.

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Encephalitis: Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)

All viral forms of encephalitis have similar clinical features, although certain differences do occur.

Usually, the acute illness begins with sudden onset of fever, headache, and vomiting and progresses to include signs and symptoms of meningeal irritation (stiff neck and back) and neuronal damage (drowsiness, coma, paralysis, seizures, ataxia, and organic psychoses). After the acute phase of the illness, coma may persist for days or weeks.

The severity of arbovirus encephalitis may range from subclinical to rapidly fatal necrotizing disease. Herpes encephalitis also produces signs and symptoms that vary from subclinical to acute and commonly fatal fulminating disease. Associated effects include disturbances of taste or smell.

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Article Excerpts About Symptoms of Meningitis:

NINDS Encephalitis and Meningitis Information Page: NINDS (Excerpt)

Symptoms, which may appear suddenly, often include high fever, severe and persistent headache, stiff neck, nausea, and vomiting. Changes in behavior such as confusion, sleepiness, and difficulty waking up are extremely important symptoms and may require emergency treatment. In infants symptoms of meningitis may include irritability or tiredness, poor feeding and fever. (Source: excerpt from NINDS Encephalitis and Meningitis Information Page: NINDS)

Meningococcal Disease (General): DBMD (Excerpt)

High fever, headache, and stiff neck are common symptoms of meningitis in anyone over the age of 2 years. These symptoms can develop over several hours, or they may take 1 to 2 days. Other symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, discomfort looking into bright lights, confusion, and sleepiness. In newborns and small infants, the classic symptoms of fever, headache, and neck stiffness may be absent or difficult to detect, and the infant may only appear slow or inactive, or be irritable, have vomiting, or be feeding poorly. As the disease progresses, patients of any age may have seizures. (Source: excerpt from Meningococcal Disease (General): DBMD)

Viral (Aseptic) Meningitis: DVRD (Excerpt)

The symptoms of meningitis may not be the same for every person.  The more common symptoms are fever, severe headache, stiff neck, bright lights hurt the eyes, drowsiness or confusion, and nausea and vomiting. In babies, the symptoms are more difficult to identify.  They may include fever, fretfulness or irritability, difficulty in awakening the baby, or the baby refuses to eat. (Source: excerpt from Viral (Aseptic) Meningitis: DVRD)

Headache - Hope Through Research: NINDS (Excerpt)

Meningitis and encphalitis headaches are caused by infections of meninges-the brain's outer covering-and in encephalitis, inflammation of the brain itself. (Source: excerpt from Headache - Hope Through Research: NINDS)

Meningitis as a Cause of Symptoms or Medical Conditions

When considering symptoms of Meningitis, it is also important to consider Meningitis as a possible cause of other medical conditions. The Disease Database lists the following medical conditions that Meningitis may cause:

• Acute confusional state
• Chronic brain failure
• Cranial nerve disorder
• Diabetes insipidus, non-nephrogenic
• Fits
• Galactorrhoea-Hyperprolactinaemia
• Headache
• Hyperventilation
• Kernig's sign positive
• Meningism
• Neck stiffness
• Oligoclonal bands (CSF)
• Opisthotonus
• Photophobia
• Raised intracranial pressure
• Reduced level of consciousness
• Sensorineural hearing loss
• SIADH
• Spastic ataxia

Meningitis as a symptom:

For a more detailed analysis of Meningitis as a symptom, including causes, drug side effect causes, and drug interaction causes, please see our Symptom Center information for Meningitis.

Medical articles and books on symptoms:

These general reference articles may be of interest in relation to medical signs and symptoms of disease in general:

• Diagnostic Testing for a Diagnosis of Meningitis
• Research Alternative Diagnoses for Meningitis
• How serious is Meningitis?
• More about Meningitis
• Online Diagnosis
• Self Diagnosis Pitfalls
• Pitfalls of Online Diagnosis
• Symptoms of the Silent Killer Diseases
• Lesser known silent killer diseases
• Books on signs and symptoms

Full list of premium articles on symptoms and diagnosis

About signs and symptoms of Meningitis:

The symptom information on this page attempts to provide a list of some possible signs and symptoms of Meningitis. This signs and symptoms information for Meningitis has been gathered from various sources, may not be fully accurate, and may not be the full list of Meningitis signs or Meningitis symptoms. Furthermore, signs and symptoms of Meningitis may vary on an individual basis for each patient. Only your doctor can provide adequate diagnosis of any signs or symptoms and whether they are indeed Meningitis symptoms.