Epidemiological and clinical study on acute encephalitis in children aged 0-15 years in the pediatric department CHU Gabriel Toure.

Abstract

Introduction: Acute encephalitis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in pediatrics; The aim of our study was to study the epidemiological and clinical aspects of acute encephalitis in children aged 0-15 years in the pediatric department of CHU Gabriel Toure. Methodology: This was a 12-month descriptive study from January 1st to December 31st, 2015 in the pediatric department of the Gabriel Toure Bamako Mali Teaching Hospital. All cases with acute encephalitis were included.Results: Thus 34 cases of children with acute encephalitis out of a total of 4,727 hospitalized pediatric patients were analyzed, a frequency of 0.72%. Approximately Forty-seven percent (47.1%) of the children were between 12 and 59 months old. The sex ratio was 1.8 in favor of boys; fever plus convulsion was present in 70.6%, followed by coma 41.2%. The death rate was 6%, and 64.7% had neurological sequelae. Conclusion: Acute encephalitis is an important cause of neurological sequelae in children because of the difficulties of diagnosis and management.