User:VPedigo/sandbox

Hello! I am a forth year medical student involved with WikiProject Medicine. This 4 week elective course is designed to help improve existing Wikipedia medicine pages. I am excited to be a part of this community!

My overall goal for the next 4 weeks is to generally expand the already wonderful material on this page. Viral meningitis is such an important topic in health care, and I feel that it can be a confusing condition for students and patients alike. With this page being rated as "Start", I hope to fill in any potential gaps in information, add more images and videos, and increase the proportion of references that are systematic reviews. I have a particular interest in the pediatric population, and will increase the amount of information related to pediatric and infantile meningitis. More specifically, my goals include:

- Update the epidemiology in the Introduction. The current statistics are from 1988 to 1999.

- In the Signs and Symptoms category, I hope to make it a bit more reader friendly for lay people. Right now, there is some medical jargon surrounding fever and neck stiffness. Additionally, I will add more information on which populations are most susceptible to viral meningitis (immunocompromised). I think it could also add value to describe Cushing's Triad as it relates to increased intracranial pressure.

- I feel that the Mechanism section would be a great area to add a video on the pathophysiology of viral meningitis.

- In the Diagnosis section, I plan to add: a picture/video of a lumbar puncture, more information regarding CSF lab values, and a paragraph that discusses differential diagnosis.

- Add information about possible hospital observation in the Treatment section.

- Update the Epidemiology section with more recent statistics.

I am always thankful for any feedback during this process! Thank you!