Is tuberculous meningitis contagious?

Tuberculous meningitis is an inflammatory disease of the meninges caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which can account for about 70% of the neurological tuberculosis, often secondary to cornual tuberculosis or tuberculosis of other organs in the body, and is common in children and young people in winter and spring, and most of them are not infectious. The pathogenic bacteria of tuberculous meningitis are mostly human-type Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and a few are bovine-type Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which are often infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis due to decreased resistance or metamorphosis, and the primary infection of tuberculous meningitis is usually the tuberculosis bacteria enter the meninges through the lymphatic system and hematogenous dissemination and form nodules in the meninges and meninges, and then the nodules break, and a large number of tuberculosis bacteria enter into the subarachnoid space, which results in tuberculous Meningitis. Tuberculous meningitis can also be secondary to reactivation of latent tuberculosis bacilli in the body after immunocompromise and hematogenous dissemination, forming tuberculosis foci in the brain parenchyma, which later rupture into the subarachnoid space or ventricles. In addition, tuberculosis can be directly invaded from the tuberculosis foci in the skull, vertebrae and mastoid process to the intracranial area or the spinal canal to cause tuberculous meningitis. The clinical onset of tuberculous meningitis is insidious, the course of the disease is long, the symptoms often vary in severity, often manifested as tuberculosis toxaemia, increased intracranial pressure and meningeal irritation, etc., and in severe cases, there may be cranial nerve damage and cerebral parenchymal damage, and the auxiliary examination highly suggestive of the disease should be timely anti-tuberculosis treatment, and the anti-tuberculosis treatment has a longer course of treatment, which usually takes about 1 year. To summarize, most of the tuberculous meningitis is not contagious, but need to be in the regular hospital for regular treatment.