Infections of the central nervous system (CNS) consist of infections primarily of the brain and spinal cord.
They include mostly viral infections, less commonly bacterial infections, fungal infections, prion diseases and protozoan infections.
Neonatal meningitis is a particular classification by age.
There are five main causes of CNS infections, namely bacterial, viral, fungal, protozoal, protozoan infections and prionic infections.
These are transmissible spongiform encephalopathies like: These are not infections but post-infectious CNS diseases: