Open AccessA tropical menace of co-infection of Japanese encephalitis and neurocysticercosis in two children
Author(s) -
Sangeetha Yoganathan,
Sniya Sudhakar,
Maya Thomas,
Vikas Yadav
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of pediatric neurosciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.247
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1998-3948
pISSN - 1817-1745
DOI - 10.4103/1817-1745.187644
Subject(s) - neurocysticercosis , medicine , taenia solium , encephalitis , magnetic resonance imaging , ribavirin , viral encephalitis , cysticercosis , pediatrics , epilepsy , pathology , virology , virus , psychiatry , radiology , hepatitis c virus
Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a mosquito borne encephalitis caused by Flavivirus. Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is a parasitic disease of the central nervous system caused by Taenia solium. In this report, we describe the clinical profile, imaging findings, and outcome of two children with JE and coexisting NCC. Eleven and thirteen-year-old boys from the same town of Jharkhand state were brought with history of fever, seizures, altered sensorium, and extrapyramidal symptoms. Dystonia, hypomimia, bradykinesia, and dyskinesia were observed. Meige syndrome observed in one of the children is a novel finding. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain revealed findings suggestive of JE with cysticercal granulomas. There are few reports of coexistence of JE and NCC in children. Both children were treated with ribavirin, and follow-up imaging had shown significant resolution of signal changes. Both the children had shown marked clinical improvement. Ribavirin was found to beneficial in reducing the morbidity in our patients.