Clinical outcome and neurological sequelae in serologically confirmed cases of Japanese encephalitis patients in Assam, India.

We report the clinical outcome and prognostic factors in 39 cases of childhood Japanese Encephalitis admitted to a tertiary hospital of Upper Assam and followed up for 421 days in the community. The mortality rate was 20.5% in our study. The mean GCS (9.97 +/- 0.91) was higher in surviving cases than the fatal cases (GCS 7.5 +/- 1.78) at admission. The fatal cases died within 4.75 +/- 3.19 days in the hospital. All the patients had low BMI (surviving cases 13.54 +/- 2.3; fatal cases 12.05 +/- 0.12) and were anemic. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was clear in 91.4% cases but pressure and protein content were increased in all cases. About 10% cases had parkinsonian features at the time of discharge. Residual symptoms remained in about one third of cases even after 421 days.

Japanese encephalitis virus antibody among normal individuals of Dibrugarh area, upper Assam.

In a hospital based study in Dibrugarh upper Assam carried out over a period of one year, 250 normal individuals, were screened for antibody to Japanese encephalitis Virus. 44 individuals (17.6%) showed antibody to JE virus. The highest numbers were found in July and August, each 40%, and lowest in January (4%). The ratio of apparent to inapparent infection in this study was found to be 9.1 : 100, which is lower than reported in Assam earlier, but slightly higher than predicted for India as a whole.