What Are the Early Symptoms of Childhood Encephalitis?

If a child contracts encephalitis, it can pose significant risks to their health. Encephalitis may manifest symptoms such as fever, headache, body pain, nausea, and vomiting, which can be similar to many other illnesses. To determine whether your child may have encephalitis, it is essential to have a thorough understanding of the early manifestations of this disease to enable early detection and treatment. So, what are the early symptoms of childhood encephalitis?

Firstly, regarding the early symptoms of childhood encephalitis:

1. During the prodromal stage, children may experience fever, headache, muscle pain, vomiting, and diarrhea.
2. The severity of encephalitis symptoms can vary widely, but they primarily manifest as neuropsychiatric abnormalities. These neurologic abnormalities often include fever, headache, vomiting, lethargy, coma, and convulsions. In severe cases, there may be abnormal manifestations in the brain, hypothalamus, basal ganglia, brainstem, cerebellum, and spinal cord.
3. Psychiatric abnormalities can manifest as excitability, verbosity, irritability, emotional lability, insomnia, abnormal behavior, hallucinations, fantasies, or indifference, silence, reduced activity, anorexia, poor orientation, memory loss, and incontinence.

Secondly, regarding diagnostic methods for childhood encephalitis:

1. Neurological examination should assess for visual impairments, optic disc edema, ophthalmoplegia, hearing loss, dysphagia, limb paralysis, pathological reflexes, changes in muscle tone, ataxia, involuntary movements (such as tremor, choreoathetosis, and athetoid movements), sensory impairments, retention or incontinence of urine and feces, and meningeal irritation signs.
2. Auxiliary examinations include:
• Routine blood tests: white blood cell count (10-20) × 109/L, with an increase in neutrophils, urine analysis, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, cerebrospinal fluid pressure, routine, biochemistry, cytology, immunoglobulin (IgG, IgA, IgM) measurement, and mixed rosette-forming cell assay.
• Electrophysiological examinations: electroencephalogram and brain-evoked (visual, auditory, somatosensory) potentials.
• Imaging studies: brain CT or MRI.
• Immunological tests for viral infections: detection of herpes simplex virus in blood and cerebrospinal fluid using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or polymerase chain reaction. Double-serum tests for complement fixation (a four-fold or greater increase in titer or a single titer of 1:16 or higher can confirm the diagnosis) for diseases such as epidemic encephalitis B, adenovirus, measles virus, polio, and influenza virus. Hemagglutination inhibition tests (a four-fold or greater increase in titer or a single titer of 1:320 or higher can confirm the diagnosis) as well as adenovirus immunofluorescence tests and polio neutralization tests.
• Brain biopsy: immunofluorescence examination and histopathological examination.

By understanding these early symptoms and diagnostic methods, we can better identify and manage childhood encephalitis, ensuring prompt treatment and minimizing potential harm to the child's health.