Japanese Encephalitis among Adults: A Review

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is becoming an increasingly important issue among adults. The reasons for this are multifactorial. During the past decades, new areas of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) transmission have occurred in several locations, most notably in a markedly expanded area of Australia...

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Published inThe American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene Vol. 108; no. 5; pp. 860 - 864
Main Authors Hills, Susan L, Netravathi, M, Solomon, Tom
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Institute of Tropical Medicine 01.05.2023
The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Subjects
Adult
Adults
Australia - epidemiology
Child
Encephalitis
Encephalitis Virus, Japanese
Encephalitis, Japanese - epidemiology
Encephalitis, Japanese - prevention & control
Humans
Immunity, Innate
Immunization Programs
Japanese Encephalitis Vaccines
Review
Australia
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Summary:Japanese encephalitis (JE) is becoming an increasingly important issue among adults. The reasons for this are multifactorial. During the past decades, new areas of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) transmission have occurred in several locations, most notably in a markedly expanded area of Australia during 2021-2022. When JEV enters new areas, cases in adults frequently occur. This is unlike the typical pattern in endemic areas where the burden of disease is in children because most adults are protected through natural immunity following earlier exposure to the virus. Even in endemic areas, JEV has become relatively more important in adults because improved JE control through childhood immunization programs has resulted in a substantial decrease in pediatric JE cases and thus more prominence of adult JE cases. Finally, increases in tourism to JE risk areas have resulted in more exposure of adult travelers, who are usually non-immune, to infection in JE risk areas. In this review we describe the increasing importance of JE in adults in some areas and then consider the comparative clinical presentation and severity of illness among children and adults.
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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Authors’ addresses: Susan L Hills, Arboviral Diseases Branch, Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, CO, E-mail: shills@cdc.gov. M. Netravathi, Department of Neurology, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences, Bangalore, India, E-mail: sundernetra@yahoo.co.in. Tom Solomon, The Pandemic Institute and The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom, E-mail: tsolomon@liverpool.ac.uk.
ISSN:0002-9637
1476-1645
DOI:10.4269/ajtmh.23-0036