Is encephalitis in children contagious? How to treat it?

If children do not receive relevant vaccinations on time, they are prone to encephalitis. The onset of this disease is usually rapid and can be fatal to patients, so timely treatment is related to a child's life safety. So can childhood encephalitis be transmitted to other people around them? How to treat it? Let me explain it in detail.

Encephalitis in children may be contagious. There are many types of encephalitis in children, including tuberculous, bacterial, and viral. Both tuberculous meningitis and epidemic meningitis are contagious. Bacterial meningitis is not contagious.

Children with encephalitis should be hospitalized for treatment. After hospitalization, their mental status should be closely observed, and attention should be paid to changes in body temperature, pulse, respiration and blood pressure. The pupil size should be paid attention to at all times. Once any changes occur, symptomatic treatment should be given. Attention should also be paid to nutrition and calorie supplementation. Comatose patients can be given nasogastric feeding. Patients with frequent convulsions should receive intravenous fluid infusion with a daily fluid volume of 50-0 ml/kg. When using dehydrating agents, pay attention to supplementing potassium salts. Comatose patients should be turned over frequently, and their skin should be kept clean and dry to prevent bedsores.

In case of high fever, the room temperature should be lowered (controlled at 26-28°C), and the patient should be cooled physically, such as alcohol bath, warm water bath or ice pack. Analgin can be used for nasal drops or intramuscular injection of Bupleurum. If the high fever persists or is accompanied by convulsions, sub-hibernation therapy can be used (using chlorpromazine and promethazine 0.5-1 mg/kg each time, intramuscularly once every 4-6 hours. The treatment of respiratory failure should first analyze the cause of respiratory failure and take rescue measures. The airway must be kept open and oxygen should be given. Dehydrating agents, adrenocortical hormones, respiratory stimulants, etc. can be used for respiratory failure due to brain parenchymal inflammation, cerebral edema, and cerebral hernia.

In general, the infectiousness of pediatric encephalitis is uncertain. For safety reasons, it is best to isolate patients. In addition, the treatment of encephalitis requires a comprehensive and systematic approach, so patients and their families must actively cooperate with doctors, take medications on time, and provide good care in daily life to promote recovery from the disease.