What are the early symptoms of encephalitis

Encephalitis is an inflammatory disease. Generally speaking, encephalitis is related to viruses. There are many types of encephalitis, and many people want to know what the early symptoms of encephalitis are. Generally speaking, different types of encephalitis have different symptoms, some of which may cause fever.

1. Viral meningitis

Acute onset, or preceded by a cold or a prodromal infectious disease. The main symptoms are fever, nausea, vomiting, weakness and drowsiness. Older children may complain of headaches, while infants may become restless and irritable. Severe disturbances of consciousness and convulsions are generally rare. There may be signs of meningeal irritation such as neck stiffness. But there are no localized neurological signs. The course of the disease is usually 1 to 2 weeks.

2. Viral encephalitis

The onset is acute, but its clinical manifestations vary depending on the location, extent, and severity of the main pathological changes in the brain parenchyma. The course of viral encephalitis is usually 2 to 3 weeks.

3. Others include those with hemiplegia, monoplegia , quadriplegia or various involuntary movements as the main manifestations. Many patients may have multiple types of symptoms mentioned above at the same time. Positive pathological signs appear when the lesion involves the pyramidal tract.

The diagnosis of most viral meningitis or encephalitis depends on excluding other non-viral intracranial infections and common acute brain diseases such as Reye's syndrome.

4. Based on the rapid clinical onset , with fever and headache as the main symptoms, signs of meningeal irritation, colorless and transparent CSF examination, mild to moderate increase in white blood cells, and mainly monocytes, if the patient lacks evidence of brain parenchyma damage, it is not difficult to consider it as viral meningitis. However, it is not easy to completely rule out viral encephalitis based on clinical manifestations alone, especially in patients with severe illness and mental disorders and convulsions. Even if brain imaging examinations indicate that there is no damage to the brain parenchyma, it is difficult to completely rule out viral encephalitis.