Nervous System Infections

Some of the most devastating infectious diseases are those that affect the vital organs like brain and spinal cord of our nervous system. Any damage to these organs due to infections can lead to serious consequences like deafness, blindness, learning disabilities, paralysis, and even death. Both these organs are protected from pathogens that may be circulating in the bloodstream because of blood–brain barrier. Only pathogens of special virulence characteristics can invade this defense barrier with serious consequences. Drugs used for treatment cannot cross the blood–brain barrier unless they are lipid soluble. The diseases caused due to bacterial infections are meningitis, leprosy, tetanus, botulism. Viral infections of the nervous system are responsible for encephalitis, poliomyletis, and human rabies. Protozoal infections can cause diseases like African sleeping sickness, amebic meningocephalitis.