Originally Posted by Excargodog

Any SEVERE viral illness causing encephalitis can cause cognitive impairment. Including influenza. While Herpes Simplex encephalitis more commonly leads to cognitive impairment, it certainly isn’t unheard of with influenza as well.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1074045/

https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/docserver/fulltext/jmmcr/3/6/jmmcr005076.pdf?expires=1594257318&id=id&accname=g uest&checksum=A4A02C913E9E50E0A3A9AC57926025A3

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/encephalitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20356136

Which is far from saying this is a common occurrence, although infectious Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis is common in Central America while Eastern and Western Equine Encephalitis occur in the US as well.





And of course Chikungunya is endemic through much of the Caribbean and has now spread to the US.



https://www.livescience.com/52921-ch...tis-death.html

So yeah, It’s rather PRECISELY what we are talking about here. It’s the encephalitis itself that does the damage. Not the specific agent that does the damage. If you get a bad enough case of ANYTHING it leaves a residual.

https://www.hopkinsguides.com/hopkin...l/Encephalitis