The Etiological Diagnosis and Outcome in Patients of Acute Viral Encephalitis: A Prospective Observational Study at Tertiary Care Centre of North India

Background: Encephalitis, despite being an uncommon entity, is of public health importance worldwide because of its high morbidity and mortality. Around 70% of the disease burden is in Uttar Pradesh itself. Purpose of study: To study the etiological prevalence and outcome of different viruses as causative agent of acute viral encephalitis in patients reporting to a tertiary health care center in North India. Methods: All the patients presenting with febrile encephalopathy attending the medicine outdoor patient department or emergency of medicine department were enrolled in the study, of these a total of 92 patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were included in the study. An informed consent from the patients/their attendants was obtained. Results: Minimum age of patients was found to be 14 years while maximum age was 61 years. Around 65.22% were males and majority of the patients were from Barabanki (22.83%). Magnetic Resonance Imaging findings were found to be positive in 85.87%. Most common etiology was Japanese encephalitis (38.04%) with human immunodeficiency Virus encephalitis (3.26%) being least common. After a follow up at 1 month, neurological sequelae were found to be highest in Japanese encephalitis while 100% mortality in human immunodeficiency virus encephalitis and recovery was highest in Dengue encephalitis (85.00%). Difference in outcome of different types of encephalitis was found to be statistically significant. Recovery was highest in age group up to 20 years (57.69%). Difference in outcome and age of patients was found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: Early Reporting, appropriate workup and stabilization of the suspected acute viral encephalitis patients are important so as to reduce the morbidity and mortality.