Virology: syndromic diagnosis of meningitis and encephalitis

Viral infections of the nervous system represent a major health problem. It is estimated that the incidence of viral meningitis in the general population ranges from 5-17 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per year in developed countries. This heading encompasses highly varied clinical pictures, ranging from meningitis to encephalitis. This article presents the agents involved in our environment and discusses their expressiveness. In immunocompetent patients, the course of these infections is usually benign. Nucleic acid amplification techniques are the gold standard for their etiological diagnosis. The introduction of polymerase chain reaction and serological diagnosis of the main arboviruses has increased the diagnostic capabilities in a wide spectrum of these clinical entities.