treptococcus pneumoniae cause bacterial (also know as pneumococcal) meningitis, which for a long time was considered to be a strictly fatal disease. Due to advances with antibiotic research, penicillin specifically, the mortality levels of meningitis have decreased, but Schuchat et al. (1997) declared that these mortality levels are still too high. In fact, Streptococcus pneumoniae presents the greatest risk of death with bacterial meningitis (Grimwood et al. 2002). Furthermore, fatality is not the only major devastating result from pneumococcal meningitis, because nearly half of the survivors of the disease have been reported to have neurological and neuropsychological sequelae (Grimwood et al. 2002). Many of the deleterious effects of meningitis are caused by the host defense mechanisms, such as inflammatory reaction (Pfister et al. 1997). Therefore, rather than most of the damage being inflicted by Streptococcus pneumoniae, the host is injuring itself in an attempt to stop the infection. So, mediating the host’s defense mechanisms may be the key to limiting the detrimental effects of meningitis (Koedel et al. 2002).