Does having encephalitis affect intelligence?

Every time the season changes, the flu starts to spread in schools, and many children with poor resistance are most likely to be infected first. There are many cases where the cold leads to fever and then encephalitis. Encephalitis can be divided into mild and severe types. Patients with mild illness will not experience any impact on their intelligence, and their condition will improve as they recover from colds and fevers. If unfortunately, the condition is serious, it may also affect intelligence. This article introduces encephalitis, let’s take a look.

There are many sequelae that may occur after treatment of encephalitis, which depends on the severity of the inflammation. Generally, patients will have: limb movement disorders, or intellectual disabilities, as well as aphasia, dysphagia, etc. These will have serious effects on patients, and effective rehabilitation methods should be taken in time to improve these sequelae.

In fact, there are two types of encephalitis, one is viral encephalitis and the other is bacterial encephalitis. The sequelae of each are different, as shown below:

Sequelae of viral encephalitis:

① Manifested in language, such as aphasia, incoherent and slow speech, or dysphagia, deafness, epilepsy and other neurological damage.

② Memory loss occurs, or it may lead to some mental abnormalities and cognitive dysfunctions such as dementia, mental retardation, erratic crying and laughing, and hyperactivity.

③Autonomic nervous system dysfunction occurs, such as excessive sweating, drooling, etc.

Sequelae of bacterial encephalitis:

Bacterial encephalitis can also lead to many sequelae, such as severe cases of impaired consciousness, deafness, visual impairment, or epilepsy, hydrocephalus, etc., while milder sequelae can cause patients to have learning difficulties, or hearing loss on one side, diplopia, etc.

It can be seen that whether it is bacterial encephalitis or viral encephalitis, the consequences are serious, and the sequelae caused will have a serious impact on the patient's life and health. Therefore, for patients with some sequelae caused by encephalitis, it is necessary to do some rehabilitation training in time to improve the sequelae in order to minimize the harm.

Home care for viral encephalitis

1. Encephalitis is often accompanied by high fever. When the child's body temperature rises or he has chills, you must pay attention to keeping him warm; when using antipyretics, you must give the child plenty of water; after the fever subsides, you must help the child change his sweat-soaked clothes in time.

2. Let the unconscious child lie flat with his head tilted to one side so that the secretions can be discharged at any time; help the child turn over once every two hours, and the mother can pat the child's back gently to help the phlegm be discharged smoothly.

3. For children with sequelae of paralysis, the paralyzed limbs should be placed in a functional position, and the muscles of the limbs should be massaged and stretched as soon as possible.

4. For bedridden children, care should be taken to avoid bedsores, so mothers should help the children turn over more often and use anti-bedsore air cushions; if bedsores have already occurred and the symptoms are mild, they can be treated with a lamp. The method is to use a 60-watt bulb, placed 3-4 cm away from the bedsore, and bake for 15 minutes each time, twice a day, to help promote blood circulation.

5. For children in the recovery period of encephalitis, we should help them enhance their self-care ability and confidence, and assist them to continue to actively exercise for better recovery.