Japanese encephalitis virus
From IDWiki
Background
- Single-stranded positive-sense enveloped virus in the family Flaviviridae and genus Flavivirus
- Found in Asian and the western Pacific
- Reservoir is pig and wading birds
- Vector-borne, transmitted by Culex mosquitoes
- More common in children and non-immune adults
- Overall, extremely low risk for travellers with 66 cases in Western travellers since 1973 and estimated less than 1 case per 10 million trips
Clinical Manifestations
- Incubation period of 5 to 15 days
- 99% of infections are asymptomatic
- Syndrome is characterized by parkinsonism
Prognosis and Complications
- 20-30% mortality among people who develop encephalitis
- 30-50% of survivors have neuropsychiatric symptoms
Management
- Supportive
Prevention
- Vaccine is not routinely recommended due to the rarity of disease
- Vaccine may be considered if there will be rural exposure, repeated travel to risk areas, longer cumulative duration of travel (e.g., > 30 days), or travel in areas suffering an outbreak
- However, disease is still rare
