Meningitis: Introduction

Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges, the lining surrounding the brain and the spinal cord. Public health concerns mainly focus on the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis, as it can cause large-scale epidemics. This course provides a general introduction to Meningitis and is intended for incident managers and personnel working for the United Nations, international organizations and NGOs.

**Please note: This course was developed in 2017. For the latest updates, please refer to the relevant health topics on the WHO website.

Course information

La version française de ce cours est disponible sur : https://openwho.org/courses/meningite-introduction

Overview: Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges, the lining surrounding the brain and the spinal cord. Public health concerns mainly focus on the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis, as it can cause large-scale epidemics. This course provides a general introduction to Meningitis and is intended for incident managers and personnel working for the United Nations, international organizations and NGOs.

Learning objective: By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

• list the major components of meningitis outbreak control; and
• describe the main challenges in implementing an effective outbreak response.

Course duration: Approximately 1 hour.

Certificates: A Confirmation of Participation is available to participants who complete at least 80% of the course materials.

Course contents

• Introduction to Meningitis:

  This section is an introductory-level overview of the disease.