Science Ticker Health & Medicine Chilling body doesn’t stop bacterial infection Bacterial meningitis, caused by microbes such as Streptococcus pneumonmiae (shown), can damage the brain. Cooling the body with induced hypothermia to prevent the damage does not seem to be as helpful as once thought, a new study shows. R. Facklam, J. Carr/CDC Share this:EmailFacebookTwitterPinterestPocketRedditPrint By Ashley Yeager November 26, 2013 at 5:00 pm Lowering the body temperature of individuals with severe bacterial meningitis may not help improve patients’ health and could do more harm than good, a new study suggests. The results, which appear November 27 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, are similar to recently reported findings that suggest that induced hypothermia is not as helpful or safe for treating individuals with cardiac arrest as once thought.