What causes encephalitis?

The emergence of encephalitis indicates that the health of the brain is threatened. Encephalitis is generally an inflammatory disease caused by infection with pathogens. Encephalitis has many impacts because it can cause damage to the brain structure and affect the patient's normal life.

1. Viruses

Viruses do not have a cell structure and are divided into two categories based on the different nucleic acid components: one is the deoxyribonucleic acid virus (DNA virus): including parvovirus, papillomavirus (which causes progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy), adenovirus, herpes virus, and varicella-zoster virus. The other is the RNA virus: including picornaviruses (poliovirus, coxsackievirus, ECHO virus), arboviruses, orthomyxoviruses (influenza virus), paramyxoviruses (measles virus and mumps virus), arenaviruses (lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus), and rhabdoviruses (rabies virus). Viral encephalitis can be divided into acute, subacute and chronic encephalitis according to the severity of onset. According to the type of virus and the route of infection, it can be divided into arbovirus, enterovirus, respiratory virus, herpes virus encephalitis, etc. Depending on the incidence of the disease, it can be divided into epidemic and sporadic encephalitis. It is generally believed that acute encephalitis represents acute viral infection, while subacute or chronic onset such as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis and corticostriatal spinal cord degeneration represent chronic viral infection.

2. Others

Bacteria (Bartonella bacilli (Oroya fever), Bartonella and other species of the genus (cat scratch disease), Listeria monocytogenes, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Gram-positive rod-shaped bacilli, Mycobacterium tuberculosis), Rickettsia (Eckertsia granulocyticus, Q fever Rickettsia, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, Rickettsia rickettsii, Borrelia burgdorferi, Treponema pallidum), fungi (Coccidioides immitis, Cryptococcus neoformans, Histoplasma capsulatum), parasites (Amoeba, Plasmodium falciparum, Toxoplasma gondii, Trypanosoma brucei gambiae subspecies, Trypanosoma brucei ivanica subspecies, Baylisascaris raccoon roundworm, Gnatostoma spp., Taenia solium), etc. can all cause encephalitis.