A clinico-epidemiological profile of acute encephalitis syndrome in children of Bellary, Karnataka, India

Authors

  • Sneha Kamble Department of Community Medicine, KBNIMS, Gulbarga, Karnataka, India
  • Bellara Raghvendra Department of Community medicine, VIMS, Bellary, Karnataka, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20163902

Keywords:

AES, CSF, Dengue, JE

Abstract

Background: Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) is defined as the acute-onset of fever and a change in mental status (including signs and symptoms such as confusion, disorientation, delirium or coma) and/or new-onset of seizures (excluding simple febrile seizures) in a person of any age at any time of the year. The clinical definition of AES was introduced to facilitate surveillance for Japanese encephalitis (JE), mosquito-borne viral encephalitis. Most AES is considered to be due to a viral-encephalitis, virus like West Nile, Herpes simplex virus, Flaviviruse like JE and dengue are more prevalent in South East Asia. Various subsequent studies confirmed that most AES in India are due to JE, which has been considered as the only major cause of AES in India.

Methods: A case series study was undertaken at the department of pediatrics, VIMS, Bellary. Children aged 0- 15 years with fever or h/o fever (>380c), altered level of consciousness persisting for >24hrs, convulsions, change in behavior were included as study subjects. Non probability purposive sampling was adopted to select study subjects. Data collection was done by using predesigned, pretested structured proforma & analyzed by using software SPSS version 22.

Results: A total of 136 cases formed as study subjects. With higher proportion of subjects were toddlers (30.1%), followed by pre-school children (26.5%). Majority of them being males 88 (64.7%) and 44 (32.3%) were females. More than half of study subjects were residing in rural area 80 (58.8%). The predominant presenting feature was fever, followed by convulsions 102 (75%) and vomiting 85 (62.5%). A higher proportion of cases were reported during post-monsoon period 62 (45.1%) followed by monsoon 41(30.1%). Among the 136 study AES cases, 115 (84.5%) were suspected for viral etiology (JE and dengue).

Conclusions: Majority of cases were in the age-group of 1-5 years, with male predominance. The peak in occurrence of cases was during post-monsoon period (October-February). 

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Published

2016-12-22

How to Cite

Kamble, S., & Raghvendra, B. (2016). A clinico-epidemiological profile of acute encephalitis syndrome in children of Bellary, Karnataka, India. International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 3(11), 2997–3002. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20163902

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Section

Original Research Articles