Neurological Sequelae of Hospitalized Japanese Encephalitis Cases in Gansu Province, China

Abstract

We conducted a follow-up survey for 55 Japanese encephalitis (JE) cases 1-2 years after hospital discharge in Gansu province, China. Community-, education-, and gender-matched healthy individuals without history of neurologic disease were selected as the comparison group. All subjects received neurological examination, intelligence quotient (IQ) measurement, adaptive behavior measurement, and Wechsler memory scale (WMS) assessment. We found 43.6% JE cases had at least one nervous system sequelae compared with 3.6% healthy individuals. Among JE cases, 22.4% had subnormal IQ, 18.4% subnormal verbal IQ (VIQ), 20.4% subnormal performance IQ (PIQ), and 78.4% had subnormal memory quotient (MQ). Among healthy individuals, 2.0% had subnormal IQ, VIQ, or PIQ and 8.1% had subnormal MQ. Among adult JE cases, 47.8% and 39.1% had adaptive behavior impairments and intellectual disability, respectively, compared with 18.8% and 9.7% among young cases, respectively. The results showed both adult and young surviving JE cases had significant neurological sequelae and mental disability 1-2 years after discharged.