Breakthrough Made in Cause of Encephalitis

Scientists at the Health Protection Agency in England have made a breakthrough in determining the causes of encephalitis, which affects approximately 700 people each year in the country, 7 percent of whom die from the disease.

In the study, researchers looked at more than 200 patients with encephalitis. In 63 percent of cases, the most frequent cause of the disease was the herpes simplex virus, which usually causes cold sores with no serious complications. However, they also found that almost 10 percent of all cases were caused by antibodies made by the body’s immune system against certain brain proteins and not caused by infection. It was previously known that this could be a cause, but the frequency with which it occurred had not been established.

According to the researchers, the results show that drugs to “dampen down” the immune system are more likely to be required to treat encephalitis than previously thought, as brain damage is thought to occur through immune attack of the brain. The findings were published in Lancet Infectious Diseases.