How contagious is Viral Meningitis?
Okay. It depends. Let’s talk about meningitis first. There are 2 causes of meningits – viruses and bacteria. Bacterial meningitis tends to be much more dangerous. Viral meningitis is referred to as aseptic meningitis and tends to be more mild. Viral meningitis usually takes 3-7 days to incubate in a person after exposure. At that point they become contagious. They usually stop being contagious after 10 days. Most meningitis is spread through saliva and mucus from the nose. It can also be spread in stool sometimes, but that isn’t applicable here. So as long as your husband isn’t coming into contact with her secretions, he shouldn’t be bringing it home to you and your child. You can get it off of someone’s hand if they have touched the infected fluids and then touch your face, but the ability to travel home from the hospital on your husbands hands is stretching things. I think you and your child should be okay. Just make sure that when he leaves her room he washes his hands thoroughly –
