Encephalitis Research Paper

The cause of encephalitis lethargica is unknown. Between 1917 to 1928, an epidemic of encephalitis lethargica spread throughout the world, but no recurrence of the epidemic has since been reported. Postencephalitic Parkinson's disease may develop after a bout of encephalitis-sometimes as long as a year after the

While many forms of encephalitis exist, West Nile Virus was first isolated and identified in the West Nile District of Uganda in 1937. The virus, which was seemingly isolated to North Eastern Africa, became recognized as a cause of severe human meningoencephalitis (inflammation of the spinal cord and brain) in elderly patients during an outbreak in Israel in 1957. In addition to the human victims of this disease, the virus was found Egypt and

Encephalomalacia is a condition that’s characterized by the softening of brain tissue due to inflammation or hemorrhage. Encephalomalacia is regarded as one of the most serious types of brain condition that can bring irreversible damage and affect the normal function of the body as a whole. In some cases, the brain is known to deteriorate and this often leads to extensive softening of the substances within. This softening can be in one specific area or spread to other areas. Tissue and organ damage is possible and may easily occur during this condition within the occipital lobe, frontal lobe, temporal lobe and parietal lobe. Effects within this specific part of the brain cause immediate stoppage of functions and is known as cerebral softening.

The incidence is highest in late summer and early autumn, until the first hard frost does away with the mosquito population for that year. Birds and other animals (such as horses) are the usual reservoir for the infection, and they are involved in its dissemination. Initial viral symptoms may give way to high fever and neck stiffness (meningeal signs). However, as with most forms of encephalitis, it is the confusion and depressed levels of consciousness (stupor) that mark the infection as being of the brain (encephalitis) and not just the meninges. West Nile Virus is an acute central nervous disease (McCance & Huether, 2014).

Bacterial meningitis is the swelling of the meninges. In the back of the brain, there are three protective membranes called the meninges (Mandal). During bacterial meningitis, bacteria invade the brain. This causes the immune system to enter and try to stop the disease (Mandal). In doing so, the meninges swell to stop the spread the virus, but this unfortunately causes damage to the brain and spinal area (Mandal). A person would get bacterial meningitis if their body was invaded by some of the germs that can cause it.

Encephalitis is a neurological disorder that results in the inflammation of the brain and sometimes the meninges. It is usually due to a viral infection. Most often arboviruses cause encephalitis, by transference via mosquitos to humans and animals. When bitten by an infected mosquito the virus moves from the mosquito into the person’s blood, it then reaches the brain and spinal cord, it multiplies within the central nervous system thus inflaming and damaging nerve cells, this interferes with signals from the brain to the rest of the body. The herpes simplex virus type one can commonly cause encephalitis. HIV has also been noted as an increasing cause of encephalitis. Viral infections like: mumps, chicken pox and measles can also cause encephalitis, but rarely.

disease and Alzheimer’s. Severe infection that has spread to the brain, epilepsy, stroke, and the late

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis is an immune-mediated inflammatory demyelinating condition that affects the white matter of the brain and spinal cord. ADEM also attacks the nerves of the central nervous system and damages their myelin insulation, which destroys the white matter. It is often triggered after the patient has received a viral infection or sometimes exceedingly rarely specific non-routine vaccinations. It affects children more than adults but can affect anyone. More than half of patients have an illness usually an infection two to four weeks before developing ADEM. Most of these illnesses are viral or bacterial, often no more than an upper respiratory tract infection. In children with ADEM, prolonged and severe headaches occur. In addition, the patient develops fevers during the ADEM course.

West Nile Virus is a neurologic or neuroinvasive disease that can be spread from one single mosquito bite (Lashley & Durham, 2007). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015) states that about one in every five people that are infected by West Nile Virus will develop a fever with the accompany of other symptoms, and of the people infected less than one percent may develop serious, potentially life threatening, neurological symptoms. “West Nile Virus was first isolated from a woman in the West Nile province of Uganda in 1937” (Lashley & Durham, 2007, p. 338). West Nile Virus first appearance in the United States in August of 1999 in Queens, New York due to a suspicious case of encephalitis (Lashley & Durham, 2007). Active

ADEM is believed to be an autoimmune disorder in which the body’s own immune system mistakenly attacks its own brain tissue. Most of the time, it is believed to be triggered by a response to an infection, vaccination or other environmental stimulus. Furthermore, ADEM is sometimes referred as a post-infectious or post-immunization acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. ADEM is characterized by a brief yet widespread attack of inflammation in the brain and spinal cord that damages the protective covering of nerve fibers (myelin). This disorder can happen at any given age, however, it is more common in yonger children.It is also common for ADEM to happen in the winter and spring time and it is more common to happen to males than to females at a ratio of

This story follows a 14 year old Indian boy named Arnold Spirit Jr. He was born with hydrocephalus which filled too much cerebral spinal fluid inside his skull. This lead to numerous health problems which included extra teeth in his mouth, awkwardly sized body parts, and random seizures as a child. Since his parents were very poor the hospital couldn’t do as much to help. Junior lived all his life with the Spokane Tribe going to a very low budget school he calls the “Rez”. On page 46 of this book, Junior tells his parents that he’s considering transferring to Reardan, one of the best schools in the state. This was very far away from where they lived but they had much more to offer such as a computer room, a huge laboratory, and two basketball

Liaw and Shen (1991) observed four children aged four to nine-years-old with AIWS associated with EBV infection. Episodes of perceptual distortions in body schema and objects lasted between five days to three months following infection of acute EBV. With the use of EEG and CT scans, the symptoms of AIWS appeared to be caused by benign and transient EBV infections localized in the parietal lobe. In addition to this, the perceptual distortions were also associated with infection of the temporal and occipital lobe in this sample of children. Since EBV compromises the central nervous system, the researchers suggest that incidences of AIWS are often the first and predominant symptom of EBV infection. An acute EBV infection can result in infectious mononucleosis (Saldana et. al, 2012), so it is important to also consider the long-term consequences of prolonged EBV

Beasley, David W.C., Barrett, Alan A.T., Tesh, Robert B. (2013). Resurgence of West Nile neurology disease in the United States in 2012: What happened? What needs to be done? Antiviral Research, 99:1-5.

Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges, membranes that surround the brain. This can extend as far as infecting the cerebral spinal fluid on top of causing the tissue to swell. Meningitis comes in two major forms; bacterially and virally. However, having bacterial meningitis is much more severe than viral meningitis. There is a lot more danger in having a bacterial infection within the brain than a viral infection within the brain. What makes bacterial meningitis so lethal is that “even when the disease is diagnosed early and adequate treatment is started, 5% to 10% of patients die, typically within 24 to 48 hours after the onset of symptoms. Left untreated, up to 50% of cases may die, (6) or there

Encephalitis is a condition caused by viruses which cause the brain to become inflamed. There are two types of encephalitis one is called primary because the viruses affect the brain itself. Secondary is the viruses travel from some other part of the body that has been affect to the brain. When the virus reaches the brain it begins to multiply causing inflammation. The brain’s white matter can be destroyed. This destruction causes cell death, hemorrhage and edema. The edema begins to compress the blood vessels this causes intracranial pressure (Mayo Clinic, 2011).