Stories and News Our projects around the world SEED FUNDING SENEGAL Implementing an hospital-based encephalitis surveillance in Senegal to decipher main causes of viral encephalitisin a West-African Low-Income Country Project Lead - Dr Jamil Kahwagi, Clinique de Neurosciences Ibrahima Pierre Ndiaye, CHNU FANN, Dakar, SENEGAL Awarded 2021 Lay Summary Background: Acute meningoencephalitis is a serious disease associated with high mortality. They can be caused bypathogens (bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites) or of autoimmune origin. Viruses play an important role inencephalitis, but little is known about their mode of action. A viral aetiology would be suspected in most cases, butcurrent diagnostic tools only allow to search for a limited number of viral agents already known.To date, in Senegal, very little data are available on the main etiological causes of infectious meningoencephalitis. This lack of knowledge impacts the management of patient, and it is essentially based on a probabilistic approach.This study aims to increase our knowledge of the viral aetiologies of meningoencephalitis in Senegal. Methods: The protocol will be part of the routine hospital management for patients with infectiousmeningoencephalitis. Various biological samples will be taken, such as cerebrospinal fluids (CSF), whole blood,oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal swabs, and urine. In addition to the samples, socio-demographic, clinical andexposure data will be collected in a questionnaire to describe the epidemiology of encephalitis cases and identifypotential risk factors. We will make the use of a multiplexes detection system (RT-PCR) enabling the detection of themajor encephalitis-associated viruses. Additional funds from other ongoing and future projects will extend the panel of detection to other pathogens aswell as serology assay (SARS-CoV-2), metagenomic approach and the evaluation of the use of a rapid test (lateralflow device) by clinician and its predictive value for the orientation of bacterial vs. viral infection. Expected results: The project will identify the main viral aetiologies associated with encephalitis, clinical descriptionof cases, identification of risk factors and better management of infectious encephalitis Dr Jamil Kahwagi, Neurologist, Fann Hospital, Dakar and Dr Jean-Michel Heraud, Virologist, Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Dakar, Senegal talk about the project the Encephalitis Society provided funding for, in 2021. Manage Cookie Preferences