Environmental Risk Factors of California Encephalitis in Man

Abstract

HE occurrence of encephalitis in humans is caused by several different kinds of arthropod-borne viruses and a variety of other complications resulting from either head injury or such infectious childhood diseases as mumps, measles, or chicken pox. Each year encephalitis affects hundreds of young children and a lesser number of adults in the United States. Generally explained as inflammation of the brain, not all cases of encephalitis are severe and few persons die from the disease. However, such serious aftereffects as retardation, paralysis, or mental instability present a major problem. Signs and symptoms of encephalitis in humans include a progressive and rapid syndrome that may or may not comprise headache, nausea, vomiting, fever, sore throat, chills, stiff neck, drowsiness, trembling, vertigo, convulsions, and coma, sometimes followed by death. No vaccine for immunization against encephalitis exists. The best measure taken at this time is treatment with antibiotics after infection.