epilepsy and a virus
jkoe...@elektron.et.tudelft.nl
hi,
my girl friend(23) has since one year epilepsy. It came out of the nothing.
She she was a little ill (like the 'flu') and suddenly bang a big seizure
(about 20 minutes shaking). The doctors think a virus got in her brain. My
question is:is there anyone out there who got epilepsy from a virus ?
Greatings Joris
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Hello,
There are in fact a good many papers that have been published which
point to viral causes for some cases of epilepsy. The exact nature of
the damage depends upon the type of infection and upon the individual's
response, so it is difficult to assess. Nevertheless, it is generally
suspected that a range of viruses are capable of causing epilepsy and
some suspects do not cause an attendent high fever. The opposite is also
true. That is, the roseolla (mild measles with high temp spike) virus,
which usually causes very high fever initially, is often not even an
aggravator of seizures in epileptics--a very surprising thing. There is
certainly a lot of mystery in epilepsy and the role of viral infections
could eventually help us understand it all a bit better. What does seem
clear is that a fever may not be a cause, but rather may just be
coincident with the actual damage or may increase the probability of
damage since the usual metabolic reactions are so easily affected by a
rise in temperature.
Tom
(Father of a 4-year old who's getting better every day)
Thomas L. Ferrell, PhD
Health Sciences Research Division
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Don Stauffer
While I was dwelling on the fundamental interconnectedness of all
things on Mon, 30 Mar 1998 04:43:01 -0600,
jkoe...@elektron.et.tudelft.nl wrote:
My wife believes it's possible she got it when she was a child, from
Reye's Syndrome, which happens when Aspirin is given after (I think)
Chicken Pox. It results in an extremely high fever, which in some
people can damage the brain and cause epilepsy.
Don Stauffer
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br...@mweb.co.za
Hi joris
My name is Brent and I am 25 years old. I have been a sufferer form Epilepsy
for four years.
I contracted Epilepsy through viral encephalitis of the brain stem through
chickenpox with a high fever. I have spent seven days in intensive care and
the doctor told my parents that if their was no improvement within 48 hours,
complications could be permanent.
I totally believe today that a virus can cause any medical problems and that
their is no medical explanations. Doctors are total dumb struck and drugs
can no longer cope. The biggest factors in my life which can cause fits are
stress and tiredness.
Best wishes
Brent
jkoe...@elektron.et.tudelft.nl
In article <6frgbq$60o$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
br...@mweb.co.za wrote:
Hi Brent
> I contracted Epilepsy through viral encephalitis of the brain stem through
> chickenpox with a high fever. I have spent seven days in intensive care and
I have a queastion....how did the doctors know that it was chickenpox and how
did you get that?
Best wishes
Joris
Sheila1018
Airborne virus. My daughter had same thing.
ctw...@jps.net
In article <6fnstl$2oe$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
jkoe...@elektron.et.tudelft.nl wrote:
>
> hi,
> my girl friend(23) has since one year epilepsy. It came out of the nothing.
> She she was a little ill (like the 'flu') and suddenly bang a big seizure
> (about 20 minutes shaking). The doctors think a virus got in her brain. My
> question is:is there anyone out there who got epilepsy from a virus ?
>
> Greatings Joris
>
The following may relate indirectly to Epilepsy. Did you ever see the movie,
"Awakenings" with Robin Williams? "Awakenings" is a movie, based on a true
story, about a group of people who suffered from severe neurological damage
as the result of an Influenza Epidemic during the ~late 1920's. Influenza is
an acute, extremely contagious, commonly epidemic disease, characterized by
general prostration, occurring in several forms with varying symptoms,
usually with nasal catarrh and bronchial inflammation, and caused by a virus
(RHD). Catarrh = inflammation of a mucous membrane, esp. of the respiratory
tract, accompanied by excessive secretions (RHD, also). At any rate, the
neurological dysfunction as portrayed in the movie, in my view, was for some
of the people as challenging as many of the epilepsies are for other people.
The idea of the movie was that a medicine used to treat Parkinson's Syndrome
was used to treat this group of people with amazing positive, but quite
tragically, temporary results of 30 days or less improvement. Again, this
movie is based on a true story...that's what really happened. The movie does
show what influenza can do to people, that is the ability of a virus to
damage the nervous system. Some people apparently died from the virus,
others like this group suffered clearly neurological dysfunction, and likely
many others were able to ward off the virus for some reason and were never
effected by the virus or made a full recovery. Bottomline: "Awakenings"
shows what a virus can do to motor control abilities in human beings within
~very short periods of time. Based on "Awakenings" it seems that a virus
could cause epilepsy in at least a few people in my view, however, perhaps
sources like the Epilepsy Foundation of America, Landover, MD, can help
provide a ~definitive answer. Hope some of this helps a little.