Thread by @virology_chitra

22nd February was #WorldEncephalitisDay. @mheduNIMHANS and @encephalitis it was an opportunity to engage with medical students and professionals to talk about various aspects of #encephalitisinIndia. 1/n

We took stock of the outbreaks of acute encephalitis syndrome in India, the first recorded Japanese encephalitis outbreak, in 1955 in Vellore to the Nipah outbreak in 2018 in Kerela, and those that occur annually in multiple states of N and NE India with Prof. V Ravi.

Revisited the success of the Japanese encephalitis vaccine in South India, the impact of vaccine shortages and understood how mosquito (vector) behaviour influences control measures with Dr. Ravikumar

@shaffz told us that the risk factors for encephalitis are as varied as the causes of encephalitis (everything from JE to toxins from litchees). .

And @prashanthns pointed out to us how these risk factors are not distributed equally and how they amplify existing inequalities in access to healthcare. Encouraging us to look at encephalitis from a health systems perspective.

“HIV brought ELISA (antibody) testing to routine practice, and H1N1 outbreak brought RT PCR into routine diagnostics”, Dr. Anita Desai said as she introduced the role of the lab in the diagnosis of encephalitis
While I spoke about next gen sequencing for pathogen identification

“It’s not always infectious causes” Dr. Anita Mahadevan and Dr. Rita Christopher convinced us.
#autoimmune #encephalitis where the body produces antibodies against cells in the brain and #metabolic #encephalopathies which can be triggered by a number of toxins

“Do we image encephalitis because we can or is it really useful in diagnosis?” Dr. J. Saini asked us and @Netra40009059 emphasized that early diagnosis is critical for treatment and management, while providing us with a glimpse of what life with #encephalitis can look like

@b5ingh introduced @BIGlobal_NIHR and the design of an intervention to improve diagnosis of #braininfections while @tinadamodar86 spoke about the possibility of using deep learning to classify treatable acute #encephalitis cases

acute #encephalitis syndrome is challenging at multiple levels. There is a lot of work to be done in #prevention, diagnosis, treatment, management and patient care. Sensitizing medical students and medical professionals to the challenges seemed like a necessary first step

Thank you @India_alliance @encephalitis and @nimhans #virologynimhans.
@shaffz @prashanthns @b5ingh @tinadamodar86 @Netra40009059 and all the other twitter absent speakers for their excellent talks. A special shoutout to our friends at CMC Vellore for their support

Thanks to all 112 of you who showed up. Congratulations to the winners of the Encephalitis Quiz!
Hope everyone is enthused to learn more about encephalitis
#redforwed #WorldEncephalitisday #braininfections @encephalitisava @runningmadprof @BIGlobal_NIHR
@encephalitis

Team #virologynimhans @harshaanuraj @tinadamodar86 @narendrakumar98 @sourabhsuran87 @shaffz