Dengue Associated Acute Encephalitis Syndrome Cases in Son La Province, Vietnam in 2014.

Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) is associated with high morbidity and mortality, and affects both children and adults. The main etiologic agent is Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV); however, there are also reports of Dengue virus (DENV) encephalitis. The objectives of this study were to determine the proportion of patients with encephalitis due to JEV during the 2014 outbreak in Son La Province in Vietnam and to explore the association of DENV in non-JEV viral encephalitis cases.

Isolation of dengue serotype 3 virus from the cerebrospinal fluid of an encephalitis patient in Hai Phong, Vietnam in 2013.

Dengue encephalitis (DE) is characterized as unusual presentation of dengue infection. Despite the reports that DE accounts for only 1-5% of dengue cases, this disease tends to be increasingly reported to threaten global human health throughout dengue endemic areas particularly in Southeast Asia. The molecular information of clinically characterized, neurotropic dengue virus (DENV) in human beings is extremely scarce despite it playing an important role in deciphering the pathogenesis of dengue-related neurological cases.