City researchers win pounds 2m aid for brain bug study; Team aids to shed new light on deadly infection.

Byline: LIZA WILLIAMS

LIVERPOOL researchers have been awarded pounds 2m to study a devastating brain infection which can develop from the same virus which causes cold sores.

The UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) have given the Liverpool Brain Infections Group cash to look into encephalitis - an inflammation in the brain most often caused by the herpes virus.

The Liverpool Group - based at the Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Liverpool and Royal Liverpool University Hospital - has been studying viral encephalitis for the past 10 years.

Previously, most of the group's work has been on viruses that cause major outbreaks overseas, but with this grant the group will start looking at viruses in the UK.

For this project, the Liverpool Group has pulled together leading researchers from across the UK to work with the Health Protection Agency and the Encephalitis Society.

Professor Tom Solomon, head of the Brain Infections Group, said: "Patients with encephalitis can be difficult to identify, because to begin with the virus just causes subtle changes, such as mild behavioural problems.

"However, if doctors don't recognise it, and act quickly, patients can rapidly deteriorate and may even die."

This grant will allow the team to study what happens when adults and children develop encephalitis, and to see if new national guidelines, which are being developed, can improve the outcome.

Three years ago, Robert Nealy, a 55-year-old factory manager from Merseyside, developed herpes encephalitis.

He said: "At first, the doctors didn't know what was wrong with me. They nearly sent me home from hospital.

"However, I was lucky; one of them realised it could be encephalitis, and started treatment straight away."

Ava Easton, of the Encephalitis Society, added: "It's fantastic news that the NIHR recognises encephalitis is an important problem in the UK, costing the NHS millions of pounds every year, and we are delighted to be involved in this research. The timing of the grant couldn't be better, because this week is Encephalitis Awareness Week."