|
|
Article: Meningitis and encephalitis: diseases that attack the brain.
- Article from:
- Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- October 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Weekly Reader Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Danene Byrd is hearing-impaired--but she is lucky. Danene survived meningitis when she was 16 months old. She is now an eleventh grader with a "B" average at Samuell High School in Dallas, Texas. Others, however, are not so lucky.
Meningitis is usually a bacterial infection of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord (meninges). It affects thousands of children each year; 5 percent to 10 percent die from the disease. When it isn't fatal, it may leave permanent brain damage in the form of mental retardation, seizures, paralysis, or deafness.
Some types of meningitis are contagious, such as those cases caused by the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis and ...