Bacterial meningitis refers to meningitis

Meningitis

Meningitis is inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, known collectively as the meninges. The inflammation may be caused by infection with viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms, and less commonly by certain drugs...

 that is caused by bacterial infection.

Signs and Symptoms

• Fever
  Fever
  Fever is a common medical sign characterized by an elevation of temperature above the normal range of due to an increase in the body temperature regulatory set-point. This increase in set-point triggers increased muscle tone and shivering.As a person's temperature increases, there is, in...
  
  
• Seizures
• Meningismus
• Headache
  Headache
  A headache or cephalalgia is pain anywhere in the region of the head or neck. It can be a symptom of a number of different conditions of the head and neck. The brain tissue itself is not sensitive to pain because it lacks pain receptors. Rather, the pain is caused by disturbance of the...
  
  
• Vomiting
  Vomiting
  Vomiting is the forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose...
  
  
• Photophobia
  Photophobia
  Photophobia is a symptom of abnormal intolerance to visual perception of light. As a medical symptom photophobia is not a morbid fear or phobia, but an experience of discomfort or pain to the eyes due to light exposure or by presence of actual physical photosensitivity of the eyes, though the term...
  
  
• Altered mental status and coma
  Coma
  In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
  
  
• Anorexia
  Anorexia (symptom)
  Anorexia is the decreased sensation of appetite...
  
  

Bacterial meningitis is often associated with elevated levels of CSF total protein

CSF total protein

CSF albumin is a measurement used to determine the levels of albumin in cerebrospinal fluid.A closely related test, CSF total protein is a measurement used to determine the levels of protein in cerebrospinal fluid. It combines the albumin, IgG, and other proteins.It can be useful in distinguishing...

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Types of bacterial meningitis

• Escherichia coli meningitis
• Haemophilus meningitis
  Haemophilus meningitis
  Haemophilus meningitis is a type of bacterial meningitis associated with Haemophilus influenzae infections.Vaccination can reduce incidence. Rates are still high in areas with limited levels of vaccination....
  
  
• Listeria meningitis
• Meningococcal meningitis
• Meningeal tuberculosis
• Pneumococcal meningitis

Bacterial meningitis may initially appear aseptic. Even though true aseptic meningitis cannot be caused by pyogenic bacteria

Bacteria

Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...

, broad-spectrum antibiotic

Antibiotic

An antibacterial is a compound or substance that kills or slows down the growth of bacteria.The term is often used synonymously with the term antibiotic; today, however, with increased knowledge of the causative agents of various infectious diseases, antibiotic has come to denote a broader range of...

 cover should be started as the consequences of misdiagnosing a bacterial meningitis are dire, and relatively easily avoided. For non-pyogenic bacteria, local sensitivities should be taken into account, but generally broad-spectrum is best. Some bacteria are normally sensitive to certain drugs - for example, rifampicin

Rifampicin

Rifampicin or rifampin is a bactericidal antibiotic drug of the rifamycin group. It is a semisynthetic compound derived from Amycolatopsis rifamycinica ...

 is good for Brucella

Brucella

Brucella is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria. They are small , non-motile, non-encapsulated coccobacilli, which function as facultative intracellular parasites....

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Treatment

While the choice of antibiotic sometimes differs based on the offending pathogen, treatment for bacterial meningitis always includes antibiotic drugs, often given intravenously. Dexamethasone has been proposed as a possible adjunct to treatment.