A clinical case of enterovirus encephalitis in a child

Abstract

In most cases, enterovirus infection (EVI) is characterized by an uncomplicated course and occurs in the form of herpangina, hand-foot-mouth syndrome, viral exanthema and enteritis. The most rare and complicated forms of EVI in children are associated with damage to the central nervous system. Every tenth case of encephalitis in a child ends in severe disability or death, and therefore encephalitis is a significant burden for public health, which determines the relevance of our work.

Objective: to demonstrate a clinical case of enterovirus encephalitis in a child. The clinical case we demonstrated reflects the polymorphism of the clinical manifestations of EVI: the onset of the disease in a child was accompanied by the appearance of febrile fever and symptoms of enteritis, followed by the development of encephalitis. The diagnostic search confirmed the etiology of enterovirus encephalitis with a positive analysis of cerebrospinal fluid by PCR, while it was not possible to isolate the virus from other loci, according to multispiral computed tomography of the brain, no pathological changes were noted. Thus, the clinical case we demonstrated made it possible to draw the attention of doctors to a rare form of enterovirus encephalitis with the realization of long-term neurological disorders in a child, which requires the development of specific methods of prevention and improvement of rehabilitation methods, allowing to reduce the risk of disability.