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Aseptic meningitis - Treatment

Alternative Names

Sterile meningitis

Treatment:

Treatment is needed for fungal or mycobacterial causes of aseptic meningitis. Herpesvirus or varicella (chicken pox) virus may be treated with antiviral medicines. Treatment for non-infectious causes consists of pain medications and management of complications, if they occur.

No specific treatment is available for enteroviral aseptic meningitis.

Expectations (prognosis):

Aseptic meningitis caused by a virus is usually a harmless disease. People usually recover fully 5 - 14 days after symptoms start.

Fatigue and light-headedness may last longer in some people.

Complications:

An infection of the brain (encephalitis) may develop, though this is rare. The infection may last much longer in a person with a depressed immune system.

Calling your health care provider:

Call your health care provider if you have symptoms of aseptic meningitis.

Central nervous system

Reviewed last on: 9/28/2008
David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine; and Jatin M. Vyas, MD, PhD, Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Assistant in Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

References

Swartz MN. Meningitis: bacterial, viral, and other. In: Goldman L, Ausiello D, eds. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsever; 2007: chap 437.

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