Enteroviral encephalitis in children: clinical features, pathophysiology, and treatment advances

Abstract

Enteroviruses (EVs) have emerged as one of the important etiological agents as a causative organism for encephalitis, especially in children and adults. After the first report of EV encephalitis cases in 1950s, there have been increasing reports of regular outbreaks of EV encephalitis worldwide. Enteroviruses are RNA viruses of the family Picornaviridae that consists of more than 100 serotypes, which are characterized by a single positive-strand genomic RNA. The clinical features are pleomorphic and can be accompanied by mucocutaneous manifestations or isolated encephalitis only. The incidence of encephalitis in EV infection is reported to be about 3% and is associated with high mortality and morbidity. A number of newer therapeutic agents have been used in EV encephalitis with variable results. This review will focus on clinical features, pathophysiology, and newer treatment modality in EV encephalitis.

Keywords:

• Enteroviruses
• Encephalitis