Symptoms of Encephalitis

List of symptoms of Encephalitis:

The list of signs and symptoms mentioned in various sources for Encephalitis includes the 32 symptoms listed below:

• Mild fever - in mild cases
• Mild early symptoms
• Sudden fever
• Headache
• Vomiting
• Photophobia (abnormal light sensitivity)
• Stiff neck
• Stiff back
• Aches and pains
• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Muscle weakness
• Mental changes
• Confusion
• Disorientation
• Drowsiness
• Clumsiness
• Unsteady gait
• Irritability
• Sudden severe dementia
• Memory loss
• Withdrawal from social interaction
• Impaired judgement
• Personality changes
• Behavior changes
• Poor coordination
• Loss of consciousness
• Poor responsiveness
• Seizures
• Paralysis
• Coma
• See also symptoms of meningitis - a patient can have both encephalitis and meningitis

Note that Encephalitis symptoms usually refers to various symptoms known to a patient, but the phrase Encephalitis signs may refer to those signs only noticable by a doctor.

More ways to research these symptoms: To research other symptoms use the symptom center, or to research causes of more than one symptom in combination, try our multi-symptom search.

Research More About Encephalitis

Do I have Encephalitis?

• Encephalitis: Introduction
• Encephalitis: Diagnostic Testing to confirm diagnosis
• Alternative diagnoses and misdiagnosis for Encephalitis
• Failure to Diagnose Encephalitis
• Hidden Causes of Encephalitis
• How serious is it?
• Treatments for Encephalitis
• More about Encephalitis

Wrongly Diagnosed with Encephalitis?

The list of other diseases or medical conditions that may be on the differential diagnosis list of alternative diagnoses for Encephalitis includes:

• Meningitis
• Meningococcal disease
• Meningoencephalitis - combination of meningitis and encephalitis
• Encephalomyelitis - infection of brain and spinal cord
• Aseptic meningitis - Viral Encephalitis

See the full list of 44 alternative diagnoses for Encephalitis

More about symptoms of Encephalitis:

More information about symptoms of Encephalitis and related conditions:

• Other diseases with similar symptoms and common misdiagnoses
• Tests to determine if these are the symptoms of Encephalitis
• Symptoms that may be caused by complications of Encephalitis
• Underlying causes of Encephalitis
• Risk factors for Encephalitis

Other Possible Causes of these Symptoms

Click on any of the symptoms below to see a full list of other causes including diseases, medical conditions, toxins, drug interactions, or drug side effect causes of that symptom.

• Aches and pains - see all causes of Aches
• Behavior changes - see all causes of Behavioral symptoms
• Clumsiness - see all causes of Clumsiness
• Coma - see all causes of Coma
• Confusion - see all causes of Confusion
• Disorientation - see all causes of Disorientation
• Drowsiness - see all causes of Drowsiness
• Fatigue - see all causes of Fatigue
• Headache - see all causes of Headache
• Impaired judgement - see all causes of Cognitive impairment
• Irritability - see all causes of Irritability
• Loss of consciousness - see all causes of Syncope
• Memory loss - see all causes of Memory loss
• Mental changes - see all causes of Mental changes
• Mild early symptoms - see all causes of Vague symptoms
• Mild fever - see all causes of Mild fever
• Muscle weakness - see all causes of Muscle weakness
• Paralysis - see all causes of Paralysis symptoms
• Personality changes - see all causes of Personality change
• Photophobia (abnormal light sensitivity) - see all causes of Photophobia
• Poor coordination - see all causes of Coordination problems
• Poor responsiveness - see all causes of Unresponsiveness
• See also symptoms of meningitis
• Seizures - see all causes of Seizures
• Stiff back - see all causes of Stiff back
• Stiff neck - see all causes of Stiff neck
• Sudden fever - see all causes of Fever
• Sudden severe dementia - see all causes of Dementia
• Unsteady gait - see all causes of Unsteady gait
• Vomiting - see all causes of Vomiting
• Weakness - see all causes of Weakness
• Withdrawal from social interaction - see all causes of Isolation

Medical Books Online about Encephalitis

Medical Books Excerpts Excerpts of published medical book chapters related to Encephalitis are available from published medical books for more detailed information about Encephalitis.

Copyright notice for book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

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Symptoms of Encephalitis: Online Medical Books

16 MEDICAL BOOKS ONLINE! Review excerpts from medical books online, free, without registration, for more information about the symptoms of Encephalitis.

Meningococcal infections: Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Features of meningococcal bacteremia include sudden spiking fever, headache, sore throat, cough, chills, myalgia (in back and legs), arthralgia, tachycardia, tachypnea, mild hypotension, and a petechial, nodular, or maculopapular rash. Headache and stiff neck can also occur as the infection extends to the meninges.

In about 10% to 20% of patients, the disease progresses to fulminating meningococcemia, with extreme prostration, enlargement of skin lesions, disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), and shock. Without prompt treatment, death from respiratory or heart failure occurs in 6 to 24 hours.

Characteristics of the rare chronic meningococcemia include intermittent fever, rash, joint pain, and an enlarged spleen.

READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Encephalitis: Signs and Symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Sudden onset of fever, headache, vomiting, meningeal irritation (stiff neck and back), drowsiness, coma, paralysis, seizures, ataxia, psychoses

READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

West Nile encephalitis: Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Mild infections of the virus are more common and include fever, headache, and body aches, usually accompanied by a skin rash and swollen lymph glands. Severe infections can be manifested by headache, high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, occasional convulsions, paralysis and, rarely, death.

The incubation period for West Nile encephalitis is anywhere from 5 to 15 days after exposure. Most patients who are bitten by an infected mosquito won’t develop symptoms. It's estimated that only 1 in 300 people who are bitten by an infected mosquito will actually get sick.

READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Meningitis: Signs and Symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Nuchal rigidity, Brudzinski’s and Kernig’s signs, exaggerated deep tendon reflexes, opisthotonos, sinus arrhythmias, irritability, photophobia, deep stupor, coma

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Encephalitis: Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)

All viral forms of encephalitis have similar clinical features, although certain differences do occur.

Usually, the acute illness begins with sudden onset of fever, headache, and vomiting and progresses to include signs and symptoms of meningeal irritation (stiff neck and back) and neuronal damage (drowsiness, coma, paralysis, seizures, ataxia, and organic psychoses). After the acute phase of the illness, coma may persist for days or weeks.

The severity of arbovirus encephalitis may range from subclinical to rapidly fatal necrotizing disease. Herpes encephalitis also produces signs and symptoms that vary from subclinical to acute and commonly fatal fulminating disease. Associated effects include disturbances of taste or smell.

READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

West Nile encephalitis: Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)

Mild WNV infections are more common than severe infections and include symptoms such as fever, headache, and body aches, often accompanied by swollen lymph glands and a skin rash. Severe infections present with symptoms such as headache, high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, occasional convulsions, paralysis and, rarely, death.

The incubation period for West Nile encephalitis is 5 to 15 days after exposure.

CLINICAL TIP: Researchers estimate that only 1 in 300 people who are bitten by a mosquito infected with WNV actually develops the disease.

READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Article Excerpts About Symptoms of Encephalitis:

NINDS Encephalitis and Meningitis Information Page: NINDS (Excerpt)

Symptoms include sudden fever, headache, vomiting, photophobia (abnormal visual sensitivity to light), stiff neck and back, confusion, drowsiness, clumsiness, unsteady gait, and irritability. Symptoms that require emergency treatment include loss of consciousness, poor responsiveness, seizures, muscle weakness, sudden severe dementia, memory loss, withdrawal from social interaction, and impaired judgement. (Source: excerpt from NINDS Encephalitis and Meningitis Information Page: NINDS)

Headache - Hope Through Research: NINDS (Excerpt)

Meningitis and encphalitis headaches are caused by infections of meninges-the brain's outer covering-and in encephalitis, inflammation of the brain itself. (Source: excerpt from Headache - Hope Through Research: NINDS)

Encephalitis as a Cause of Symptoms or Medical Conditions

When considering symptoms of Encephalitis, it is also important to consider Encephalitis as a possible cause of other medical conditions. The Disease Database lists the following medical conditions that Encephalitis may cause:

• Acute confusional state
• Chronic brain failure
• Cranial nerve disorder
• Diabetes insipidus, non-nephrogenic
• Fits
• Galactorrhoea-Hyperprolactinaemia
• Headache
• Hyperventilation
• Kernig's sign positive
• Meningism
• Neck stiffness
• Oligoclonal bands (CSF)
• Opisthotonus
• Photophobia
• Raised intracranial pressure
• Reduced level of consciousness
• Sensorineural hearing loss
• SIADH
• Spastic ataxia

Encephalitis as a symptom:

For a more detailed analysis of Encephalitis as a symptom, including causes, drug side effect causes, and drug interaction causes, please see our Symptom Center information for Encephalitis.

Medical articles and books on symptoms:

These general reference articles may be of interest in relation to medical signs and symptoms of disease in general:

• Diagnostic Testing for a Diagnosis of Encephalitis
• Research Alternative Diagnoses for Encephalitis
• How serious is Encephalitis?
• More about Encephalitis
• Online Diagnosis
• Self Diagnosis Pitfalls
• Pitfalls of Online Diagnosis
• Symptoms of the Silent Killer Diseases
• Lesser known silent killer diseases
• Books on signs and symptoms

Full list of premium articles on symptoms and diagnosis

About signs and symptoms of Encephalitis:

The symptom information on this page attempts to provide a list of some possible signs and symptoms of Encephalitis. This signs and symptoms information for Encephalitis has been gathered from various sources, may not be fully accurate, and may not be the full list of Encephalitis signs or Encephalitis symptoms. Furthermore, signs and symptoms of Encephalitis may vary on an individual basis for each patient. Only your doctor can provide adequate diagnosis of any signs or symptoms and whether they are indeed Encephalitis symptoms.