What Is a Brain Infection?

By james

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Our brains are protected from disease by what is known as the blood brain barrier. This barrier helps to keep out unwanted pathogens and other unwelcome items, while also allowing essential nutrients and oxygen to pass through. As effective as this barrier is, however, unwelcome intruders will sometimes be able to get through.

If a pathogen is able to get into the brain and begin multiplying, they can cause serious problems. It can result in encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the brain. Symptoms of a brain infection typically include headaches, fever, aching joints, neurological, and mental symptoms. Brain infections are often treatable, but they can be fatal.

1. Encephalitis

A brain infection is likely to cause the organ to become inflamed in a condition known as encephalitis. There are two main types of encephalitis, primary and secondary. Primary encephalitis occurs when the brain is directly infected. It is sometimes caused by a virus that had gone dormant, only to be reactivated.

Secondary encephalitis is where the brain becomes inflamed due to an infection elsewhere in the body. In an abnormal reaction to the infection, the immune system attacks the brain’s cells and not just the infection. The two will cause the same symptoms, while there are several pathogens that are associated with primary encephalitis.