A "brain virus" can refer to two distinct things: a computer virus or a viral infection causing encephalitis.
1. Computer Virus:
The term "brain virus" is famously associated with the Brain computer virus, one of the earliest known PC viruses. This was a boot sector virus that infected floppy disks. It didn't directly damage the system but rather displayed a message identifying its creators. Modern computer viruses are far more sophisticated and can cause significant damage, data loss, and system crashes. More generally, a computer virus affecting the brain (in a figurative sense) refers to any malicious software that infects a computer system.
Example: The Brain virus, mentioned in the provided Wikipedia link (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_(computer_virus)), is a prime example of a virus historically referred to using the term “Brain virus.”
2. Viral Encephalitis:
More commonly, "brain virus" might refer to a viral infection of the brain, medically known as encephalitis. This is a serious condition causing brain inflammation (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/encephalitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20356136). Viral encephalitis can be caused by various viruses, including herpes simplex viruses, arboviruses (like West Nile virus), and others, as stated in the provided reference stating that encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain, most commonly caused by a viral infection. The inflammation leads to swelling, potentially causing severe symptoms such as headache, stiff neck, sensitivity to light, mental confusion, and seizures (https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/encephalitis). It can be life-threatening and requires urgent medical treatment (https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/encephalitis/). Some viruses, like Zika virus (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1601824), have been linked to congenital brain defects. Other viruses like Epstein-Barr virus have been associated with neurological conditions like multiple sclerosis (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17984305/).
