A recent survey revealed that encephalitis is being “barely touched” in doctors’ training, putting many at risk of misdiagnosis of the deadly brain inflammation disease. The survey, conducted by Encephalitis International, found that more than half of the surveyed Indian emergency medical professionals missed encephalitis as a potential diagnosis even when presented with common symptoms.
February 22 is observed as World Encephalitis Day every year. However, only 45 percent of emergency medical professionals felt confident in recognizing encephalitis, says Dr. Ava Easton, Chief Executive of Encephalitis International.
Moreover, many of those surveyed underestimated the severity of encephalitis, with 62 per cent not ranking death as a possible patient outcome following delayed recognition and treatment of encephalitis. “This shows that there is lack of training and awareness on a disease that affects one person every minute globally and has a higher incidence rate than Motor Neuron Disease (MND) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) combined.”
Easton admits that the situation is more or less the same across the globe as revealed in their survey conducted in six countries – the UK, the US, Germany, India, Australia and Philippines. “In the wake of these alarming survey findings, it is clear that much more must be done to bridge the gap in encephalitis awareness and expertise,” says Easton. “Encephalitis International is determined to increase this awareness among medical professionals through the development of globally accessible training programmes which will provide the tools for them to better recognize and treat Encephalitis.” “We are working with organisations such as World Health Organisation to elevate encephalitis as a global health priority. WHO came up with a document titled Why Encephalitis Matters last year.”
In India, Japanese Encephalitis had reportedly claimed eleven lives in Assam in 2023 while affecting more than 254 across the state. The same year a door-to-door survey was conducted in Nuh, Haryana after four children died from encephalitis symptoms in the district.
