Neurological Disorders: Encephalitis

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

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).

Case Description- A 3 month-old Boer cross buck kid was confirmed to have died from an infection of Eastern Equine Encephalitis in a rural county of North Florida. Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis and Rabies were included in the list of deferential diagnoses as possible causes of neurologic symptoms that could occur in adolescent caprine.1,5 PCR analysis of fresh brain tissue preformed at Department of Health in Tampa, Florida (via the Bronson Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Kissimmee, Florida) showed positive for Eastern Equine Encephalitis, then positive by virus isolation. The sample was negative for West Nile Virus, and the fluorescent antibody test for Rabies was negative.

Encephalitis literally means an inflammation of the brain, but it usually refers to brain inflammation caused by a virus. It may also be called “acute viral encephalitis or aseptic encephalitis';. Encephalitis is an infectious disease of the Central Nervous System characterized by pathologic changes in both the gray and white matter of the spinal cord and brain. It may be due to specific disease entity such as rabies or an arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus), or it may occur as a sequela of influenza, measles, German measles, chicken pox, herpes virus infection, small pox, vaccinia, or other diseases. The specific viruses involved may vary. Exposure can also occur through insect bites, food or drink, or skin

Mosquitos tend to be the main culprits; specifically female mosquitos, who carry the disease in their saliva and inject it into our bodies as they bite us in order to prevent the blood from coagulating. If you do not live in an area that is highly populated with mosquitos, and you are under 60 years old, you are of a much lower risk factor, but for those who live near many mosquitos or are 60 or older, the risk of getting West Nile Virus and suffering from its complications is much higher (mayoclinic).

What is West Nile Fever? West Nile fever also known as West Nile virus is a mosquito borne disease transferred from mosquito to person. Encephalitis is a disease that West nile virus can cause. What encephalitis does is it causes inflammation of the brain which in some cases can be fatal. The west Nile virus wasn’t discovered until 1937 in Africa. The disease didn’t make its way into the United States until 1999. The Virus is most common during the summer months (July- September) which is when mosquitos the carrier of the disease are most active. But in some states it is at risk all year round. Most people who are bitten and infected even receive the virus.

What is the history of the West Nile virus? West Nile virus is an emerging infectious disease that can cause encephalitis

West Nile Encephalitis has infected more than 25,000 horses since its 1999 entrance into the United States. This relatively new infectious disease is the most widely distributed arbovirus, causing infections across the continent from Africa, to Australia, Southern Europe, and North America. Cases have even been reported in Mexico and Canada. This paper will focus on the main symptoms, treatments, vaccination types, and prevention.

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

Prior to 2009, 90% of people suffering from Autoimmune Encephalitis were undiagnosed, or misdiagnosed. Thanks to the help of modern day doctors, discoveries have been made to treat the victims of Autoimmune Encephalitis. Autoimmune Encephalitis, or AE, is an infection where the immune system attacks the brain, impairing function (McDow, Will). This infection results in brain inflammation; this is the swelling of blood vessels in the brains tissue caused by a malfunction in another body system (McDow, Will). Also, although this disease has been recently discovered, the disease itself has been around for many years. In 2005, Dr. Josep Dalmau discovered an antibody to fight against the disease; now there are twenty two known antibodies. Because

“Rasmussen’s Encephalitis is a rare chronic inflammatory neurological disease that usually affects only one hemisphere of the brain.” (What is Rasmussen’s Encephalitis: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/rasmussen/rasmussen.htm). It is more commonly found in children 10 years of age or younger, and is described by seizures, loss of speech and motor skills, hemiparesis, inflammation of the brain, and mental deterioration. Patients with Rasmussen’s Encephalitis will have progressive brain damage in the affected hemisphere, and is accompanied by seizures. Rasmussen’s Encephalitis will have permanent, but stable neurological deficits by the first 8-12 months of diagnosis. There are currently minimal treatments, but the progression of the research

Infrequent findings attributed to monkeypox were necrotizing conjunctivitis and thyroiditis. We detected antigen within conjunctival epithelial cells and fibroblasts. Because of the limited extent of the thyroid lesion, insufficient material was available for IHC.

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

Subacute SclerosingPanencephalitis(SSPE) is a fatal form of progressive encephalitis caused by abnormal persistence of measles virus infection in central nervous system(ref).SSPE usually occurs in young children and adolescents; however it is also known to affect adults and pregnant women(ref). The clinical picture is characterized by behaviour abnormalities, cognitive decline, myoclonic epilepsy and seizures(ref). Diagnosis of SSPE is dependent upon a combination of clinical features, characteristic EEG abnormalities and elevated antimeasles antibody titre in serum and CSF(ref).Brain biopsy is needed for diagnosis in early stages of disease in absence of clinical and EEG abnormalities.MRI findings in SSPE have been described in various previous studies (ref). Most of the available studies in literature have shown increased diffusion in the involved areas (ref).We report a case of fulminant SSPE which showed atypical findings on diffusion weighted sequence on serial imaging.

Some of the viruses that cause encephalitis are arboviruses, cytomegalovirus, poliovirus, herpes zoster, and herpes simplex type 1. West Nile virus has been a big