A 47-year-old woman arrived at a German neurology emergency department with a severe headache that had begun on the second day of an amoxicillin prescription for an ear infection. Several years later, her 69-year-old father came to the same department with nearly the same story, this time after amoxicillin for bronchitis.
Both had meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. In neither case could doctors find a bacterium or virus to blame.
