Bacterial meningitis is serious. Some people with the infection die and death can occur in as little as a few hours. However, most people recover from bacterial meningitis. Those who do recover can have permanent disabilities, such as brain damage, hearing loss, and learning disabilities.

Vaccination

Vaccines are the most effective way to protect against certain types of bacterial meningitis. There are vaccines for 4 types of bacteria that can cause meningitis:

• Meningococcal vaccines help protect against N. meningitidis
• Pneumococcal vaccines help protect against S. pneumoniae
• Haemophilus influenzae serotype b (Hib) vaccines help protect against Hib
• Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine helps protect against tuberculosis disease, but is not widely used in the United States

Make sure you and your child are vaccinated on schedule.

Like with any vaccine, these vaccines do not work 100% of the time. The vaccines also do not protect against infections from all the types (strains) of each of these bacteria. For these reasons, there is still a chance vaccinated people can develop bacterial meningitis.