Mrs. P clinical case continuedMrs. P's husband is concerned that the pathogen may be contagious. He is worried he and thecouple's children could become infected when they visit Mrs. P in the hospital and inhale thepathogen. What is your response to Mr. P's concerns?yes, highly contagious through airborne transmissionno chance of transmission by airborne routeQuestion 5Mrs. P clinical case continuedYou would like to verify vour diagnosis hv taking a hionsy of Mrs P's tonsil Clinical case: Mrs. P, patient with neurological signs suggesting meningitisYour 45 year old patient (who has recently moved from Great Britain where sey were born andraised) presents with severe headaches, stiffness in the neck, confusion and drowsiness.. You suspect meningitis, a life threatening infection of the tissue surrounding the brain and spinalcord.• You take a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) sample from the patient and send it to the micro lab forexamination and culturing.• Later that day the micro lab reports that no bacteria nor fungi were observed on a direct smearof the CSF. In 3 days, the lab reports that no bacteria nor fungi grew in cultures.• The lab also ran PCR for the most common viruses causing meningitis and all were negative.ELISA's checking for helminth and protozoal infections were also negative.Blood work suggests there is no immune response to the pathogen causing the patients clinicalsigns and symptoms.

The pathogen is defined as the biological agent responsible for causing diseases or illness to the organism it affects (host).The enteroviruses responsible for causing meningitis can easily spread through direct contact with the patient's saliva, nasal mucus, or feces. Meningitis can easily spread either through coughing or sneezing. If anyone comes in direct or indirect contact with the patient, they have an increased risk of getting affected. Mrs. P may be affected by meningitis due to pathogens (fungi or parasites) that can trigger or generate inflammation of body tissues without causes any infection (such as systematic lupus erythematosus), resulting in aseptic or non-bacterial meningitis. Certain drugs are also responsible for causing aseptic meningitis, which mostly includes nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. As in this case, Mrs. P has tested negative for all the viruses that can cause meningitis, and thus, there are no chances of it to spread via airborne transmission. Therefore, it can be concluded Mr. P should not get concerned regarding him or the children getting affected because there is no chance of the pathogen getting transferred by an airborne route.Thus, it can be conferred that Mrs. P is not affected by a pathogen that is easily transmitted via air.