Why administer the antibiotics intravenously?
For one, it’s faster delivery of the drug. It also ensures delivery of adequate amounts or levels of the antibiotic. When you’re treating meningitis or any infection in the central nervous system, you need to get high levels of antibiotics to cross what’s called the blood-brain barrier to actually get to where the infection is. Often medicine by mouth is not sufficient. Who do you think should be immunized with the meningitis vaccine? The pneumococcal vaccine is now part of routine childhood immunization. It has decreased the amount of pneumococcal meningitis infections in children. The meningococcal vaccine that is available in the United States is not effective in young children. However, studies in college-age students have shown that use of the vaccine prevents about two-thirds of the cases of meningococcal disease that we see in this age group. So, as of a few years ago, recommendations were made for the education of incoming freshman and their families by their pediatrician or by
