The most common cause of aseptic meningitis is viral meningitis.
This is a relatively benign, self-limiting disease, symptomatically similar to bacterial meningitis.
Despite its benign nature for the commonest pathogen causing meningitis (enterovirus), it is still an unpleasant disease with substantial neurological complications and a significant mortality for other pathogens causing viral meningitis and for common pathogens in the immunocompromised or infants (1).
Viral meningitis has no specific treatment - supportive therapy is indicated. Hence differentiating viral from bacterial meningitis on presentation or admission to a hospital is important in reducing antibiotic usage, hospital bed occupancy and also to reassure contacts of patients and health care staff of a non-bacterial cause (1).
Reference:
Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.