It is our goal and commitment to provide all natural health supplements to help increase the quality and longevity of your life.
Home » Cold-and-flu » Encephalitis » Signs of Sncephalitis
Signs of Sncephalitis
Plural encephalitides inflammation of the brain, from Greek enkephalos (“brain”) and itis (“inflammation”). Inflammation affecting the brain may also involve adjoining structures; encephalomyelitis is inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, and meningoencephalitis is inflammation of the brain and meninges (the membranes covering the brain). Encephalitis is most often caused by an infectious organism and sometimes by such noninfective agents as chemicals, including lead, arsenic, and mercury. Although encephalitis can be produced by many different types of organisms, such as bacteria, protozoa, and helminths (worms), viruses are the most frequent causal agents. The encephalitis-producing viruses are divided into two groups: (1) those that invade the body and produce no damage until they are carried by the bloodstream to the nerve cells of the brain (e.g., the rabies and arthropod-borne viruses); and (2) those that invade the body and first injure non-nervous tissues and then secondarily invade brain cells (e.g., the viruses causing herpes simplex, herpes zoster, dengue, acquired immune deficiency syndrome [AIDS], and yellow fever).
A large number of acute encephalitides are of the type known as demyelinating encephalitis, which may develop in children as a complication of such viral diseases as measles or chicken pox or as a result of vaccination against such viral diseases as smallpox. Damage to the nerve cell body does not occur, but the insulation (myelin sheath) surrounding the nerve fibres is gradually destroyed.
Encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness (to be distinguished from African sleeping sickness, or African trypanosomiasis), occurred in epidemics in Europe and in the United States about the time of World War I but has not been reported since 1930, although certain individuals may rarely exhibit residual symptoms (postencephalitic Parkinsonism). The causative agent of sleeping sickness was never established, although the influenza virus was suspected.
Article ID: 239
Word Count: 315
Total views: 471
Rating: Not yet rated
