The telephone today is a ubiquitous or even obsolete tool of communication and information exchange. When it appeared in the nineteenth century, however, the new tool provided a radical way for individuals to talk to each other, person to person, in real time.
How contagious is meningitis? In short, most bacterial meningitis infections are mildly to moderately contagious person to person, while some viral meningitis are contagious but other types are not. Fungal, parasitic, and noninfectious causes of meningitis are not contagious from one person directly to another.
However, both bacterial and viral types of the disease are contagious. Meningitis normally occurs as a complication from an infection in the bloodstream. A barrier (called the blood-brain barrier) normally protects the brain from contamination by the blood.