Background: The inflammatory or non-inflammatory changes caused by the virus entering the nervous system and related tissues are central nervous system virus infections. Viral infection is a common infectious disease of the central nervous system, of which herpes simplex virus encephalitis is the most common. However, conventional laboratory techniques to detect an infectious agent are difficult to achieve etiological diagnosis.
Case presentation: Here we present a patient with severe and progressive encephalitis, requiring diagnosis of the specific pathogen to guide clinical treatments.
Conclusions: Application of next-generation sequencing provided a quick and definite diagnosis of the etiology of encephalitis and enabled our patient to be treated appropriately.
Keywords: Human herpes virus type 1; Next-generation sequencing; Viral encephalitis.