Encephalitis - Definition



Encephalitis (pronounced in-seh-fuh-LIE-tess) is an inflammation of the brain. It may be caused by a number of different factors. One of the most common causes is direct infection of the brain by a virus or bacterium. Inflammation can also occur as a complication of some other disorder, such as mumps (see mumps entry) or herpes simplex (see herpes infections entry). About two thousand cases of encephalitis are reported in the United States each year.

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