Essay On Encephalitis

Encephalitis as defined as simply as possible is; inflammation of the brain. That four-word definition packs a lot of potentially horrific lifelong challenges for those whom suffer from it unfortunately. Inflammation is a response of our immune systems to both infection and or invasion. With encephalitis the inflammation happening in our brain’s makes the tissue become inflamed and swollen. This combination leads to headaches and fevers in addition to a wide range of other symptoms that can be present. Indicators of encephalitis range from typical flu like symptoms, to grand mal seizure’s. It is often misdiagnosed, untreated, and considered fairly rare. Most online sources say that it effects 1 in 200,000 per year in the United States. Due to …show more content…
There are two main branches of Encephalitis. The first and more common is viral encephalitis, and the second is autoimmune encephalitis.
Viral encephalitis can develop during an infection in a person’s body, shortly after the infection, or it can even silently lay dormant in the body and all of a sudden awaken and cause complete havoc on one’s brain tissue. A vast majority of viral infections such as, the common flu, measles, mumps, herpes simples, rabies, chicken pox, and west Nile can be a host for viral encephalitis. Herpes simplex and viruses carried by animals such as rabies and West Nile are the most common of the viral encephalitis cases. Each person infected with encephalitis can be subject to a huge range of severity, with the most severe cases ending unfortunately in death. Viral encephalitis can present in any person, at any age children and elderly seem to be more susceptible to it however. Diagnosis of viral encephalitis includes a range of questioning and test. Blood test would be performed to find antibodies, cerebrospinal fluid analysis (spinal tap) would be tested to once again try to