Symptoms A fever, headache, stiff neck, sore throat, and vomiting, often following a respiratory illness, are the major early symptoms of meningitis. Adults may become desperately ill within 24 hours, and children even sooner. Older children and adults can become irritable, confused, and then increasingly drowsy. They can progress to stupor, coma, and finally death. The infection causes swelling of brain tissue and hampers blood flow, causing stroke symptoms that include paralysis.
Some people develop seizures.
Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome, an overwhelming, rapidly progressive infection caused by Neisseria meningitidis, produces severe diarrhea, vomiting, seizures, internal bleeding, low blood pressure, shock, and often death. In children up to age 2, meningitis usually causes a fever, feeding problems, vomiting, irritability, seizures, and high-pitched crying. Unlike older children or adults, infants under 1 year of age may not develop a stiff neck. An unexplained fever in children up to age 2 warrants an immediate, complete evaluation by a doctor, especially if the child becomes increasingly irritable or unusually sleepy, refuses to eat, vomits, has seizures, or develops a stiff neck. If the doctor suspects bacterial meningitis, the child is generally given antibiotics even before test results are available.