Is encephalitis serious in children?

Meningitis is a very serious disease in children, which has a great impact on their intellectual development. Therefore, mothers should seek medical attention promptly if they find that their children have meningitis. The treatment of meningitis is relatively difficult and takes a long time to recover, so it is recommended that everyone should pay attention to preventing the occurrence of meningitis in life, especially families with children.

Encephalitis is a relatively serious disease, which is an inflammatory lesion caused by the invasion of pathogens into the brain parenchyma. The vast majority of causes of this disease are viruses, but it can also be caused by infections with bacteria, fungi, spirochetes, parasites, etc. Some may also be allergic diseases, such as acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. The disease is very harmful and difficult to treat, so it is more common in children. Now let us take a look at the clinical manifestations and harmfulness of encephalitis.

The disease may clinically manifest itself in symptoms of systemic toxic blood, including fever, headache, body pain, nausea, vomiting, and general fatigue. A small number of patients may also experience adverse reactions such as hemorrhagic rash and myocarditis. The disease may also cause neurological symptoms, such as impaired consciousness and meningeal irritation. Flaccid paralysis of the neck muscles and scapular muscles may also occur, resulting in drooping head, inability to raise arms, and other mobility problems. Involvement of the cranial nerves and lower limbs is less common. If a patient is paralyzed, he or she will recover after 2 to 3 weeks, with about half of the muscles atrophied. Mild cases have no obvious neurological symptoms.

Because of the different locations and severity of the lesions, a variety of different manifestations are manifested. If there is diffuse encephalitis, there will often be systemic discomfort first, and then coma and convulsions may occur soon, accompanied by a certain fever; and brainstem encephalitis often has adverse manifestations such as facial nerve paralysis, choking, dysphagia, numbness and weakness of the limbs or oculomotor nerve paralysis. If you suffer from herpes simplex virus encephalitis, your skin will have red or white bullous rashes. If you suffer from coxsackievirus and echovirus encephalitis, you may also have rash, myocarditis, hand, foot and mouth disease, etc. It is more common in children, so parents are advised to take their children to the hospital for treatment in time.

The disease is also somewhat difficult to treat, especially viral encephalitis, for which there is no specific treatment. In particular, it is necessary to control intracranial high pressure, high fever, and convulsions. When the patient is unconscious, the airway must be kept open and oxygen can be administered if necessary. Careful care is then needed to prevent secondary infection. I hope you can understand the disease through my introduction. I wish the patients a speedy recovery, a healthy body and a happy life.