Avoid Meningitis Mayhem: What You Need To Know

5. Risk Factors

Bacterial and viral infections may result from coming in contact with an infected person. Other risk factors include missing vaccinations, living in a community setting such as college dorms, military bases, child care facilities, and boarding schools, pregnancy, and an impaired immune system such as in AIDS, diabetes, and alcoholism. The use of immunosuppressant drugs also increases the risk. Viral meningitis is most likely to occur in children younger than age five while bacterial meningitis commonly affects people under the age of twenty.