What is Encephalitis?
Encephalitis is acute inflammation (swelling) of the brain that is usually caused either by a viral infection or by the body’s immune system mistakenly attacking brain tissue.
In medicine, the word “acute” means that it appears suddenly and develops rapidly. It usually requires urgent care.
The most common cause is a viral infection. The brain becomes inflamed as the body tries to fight off the virus.
Encephalitis generally begins with fever and headache. Symptoms worsen rapidly, and fit (fits), confusion, drowsiness, loss of consciousness, and even coma may occur.
Encephalitis can be life-threatening, but this is rare. Mortality depends on a number of factors, including disease severity and age.
Younger patients tend to recover without many persistent health issues, while older patients are at greater risk of complications and mortality.
When there is a direct viral infection of the brain or spinal cord, it is called primary encephalitis. Auxiliary encephalitis alludes to a disease that began elsewhere in the body and afterward spread to the mind.
Species
Different types of encephalitis have different causes.
- Japanese encephalitis is spread by mosquitoes
- Tick-borne encephalitis is spread by ticks
- Rabies can be spread through the bite of a mammal
There is also primary or secondary encephalitis.
- Primary or infectious encephalitis can occur if fungi, viruses, or bacteria infect the brain.
- Secondary or post infectious encephalitis occurs when the immune system responds to a previous infection and mistakenly attacks the brain.
Symptoms
The patient generally has a fever, migraine, and photophobia (inordinate aversion to light). There may likewise be general shortcoming and seizures.
Less common symptoms
The individual may also have stiffness in the back of the neck (stiff neck), which can lead to a misdiagnosis of meningitis. There may be limb stiffness, slow, and clumsy movements. The patient may also develop drowsiness and cough.
More serious cases
In more serious cases, a person may have severe headaches, nausea, vomiting, confusion, disorientation, memory loss, speech problems, hearing problems, hallucinations, as well as seizures and possibly coma.
Signs and symptoms in infants
At first, encephalitis is difficult to detect in young children and infants. Parents or guardians should look for vomiting, bulging fontanelles (the soft area at the top of the middle of the head), persistent crying that does not improve when the baby is held and at rest, and a stiff body.
The reasons
Encephalitis can develop as a result of direct infection of the brain with a virus, bacteria, or fungi, or when the immune system responds to a previous infection; the immune system mistakenly attacks brain tissue.
Primary (infectious) encephalitis can be divided into three main classes of viruses:
- Normal infections, including HSV (herpes simplex infection) and EBV (Epstein-Barr infection)
- Youth infections including measles and mumps
- Arboviruses (spread by mosquitoes, ticks, and different bugs), including Japanese encephalitis, West Nile encephalitis, and tick-borne encephalitis
Secondary encephalitis: It can be a complication of a viral infection. Symptoms begin days or even weeks after the initial infection. The patient’s insusceptible framework regards solid synapses as unfamiliar creatures and assaults them. We actually don’t have any idea why the resistant framework glitches thusly.
In more than 50 percent of cases of encephalitis, the exact cause of the disease is not traced.
Encephalitis is more likely to affect children, the elderly, and individuals with weakened immune systems, and people who live in areas where mosquitoes and ticks that spread certain viruses are common.
Treatment or treatment
Encephalitis treatment focuses on relieving symptoms. There are only a limited number of specific antiviral agents that have been reliably tested that can help, one of which is acyclovir; Success is limited for most infections but when the condition is brought about by herpes simplex.
Corticosteroids may be used to reduce encephalitis, especially in cases of postinfective (secondary) encephalitis. If the patient has severe symptoms, they may need mechanical ventilation to help them breathe and other supportive treatments.
Anticonvulsants are some of the time given to patients who have seizures. Narcotics can be powerful for seizures, fretfulness, and crabbiness. For patients with mild symptoms, the best treatment is rest, plenty of fluids, and Tylenol (paracetamol) for fever and headache.