Hi, AND PLEASED TO ANSWER YOU. Infections of the central nervous system may be of two kinds. They can only affect the meninges, causing meningitis, or affect the cerebral parenchyma itself, and give either real abscesses or much more diffuse infections called encephalitis. The latter are generally associated with an infection of the meningeal envelope and produce a table called meningoencephalitis. In its typical form, the meningitis involves a syndrome associating generalized violent headache, vomiting, stiffness of the neck. The existence of fever and chills orientates towards an infectious origin, the fever may therefore be absent for certain etiologies. This meningeal syndrome is the most classic presentation, but it is necessary to mention the diagnosis of meningitis in many other clinical pictures, purpura (skin red elevation) occurring in a febrile context, disorders of consciousness or confusion syndrome occurring in febrile context, feverish diarrhea, especially in newborns and infants. Finally, some meningitis follows local ORL infections, including pneumococcal meningitis, which in 30% of cases is associated with otitis. Lumbar puncture is a simple, easy, painless and safe medical procedure. It must be demystified in the general public, since it alone can confirm the diagnosis of meningitis. as you are experiencing headache and stiffness in the neck I invite you to consult an infectiologist as urgently as possible cause I think that the only way to be sure that you have no meningitis is to do a Lumbar puncture urgently in order to check the presence or absense of meningitis . BEST WISHES