Patients with mild viral encephalitis generally recover in 2-3 weeks, and recovery time for severe cases takes 1-2 months.
There are many viruses that cause viral encephalitis, the common ones being herpes simplex virus, varicella-zoster virus, and poliovirus. Most mild cases present with headache, vomiting, mild changes in consciousness and personality, memory loss, limb paralysis, aphasia, etc. Some patients may seek psychiatric consultation for abnormal psychiatric behavior. As the disease progresses, patients may develop disorders of consciousness, such as blurred consciousness, delirium, or even coma. Severely ill patients may die at any time due to extensive brain parenchymal necrosis and cerebral edema, and increased intracranial pressure and even brain herniation may occur.
The prognosis of viral encephalitis depends on the severity of the disease and whether the treatment is timely, and about 10% of patients may be left with sequelae such as paralysis and decreased intelligence to varying degrees.