Precision Diagnosis of Acute Infectious Diseases; Neuroinflammatory Cohort

You may be eligible if

• Exclusions:
• Patients on a 5150 or 5250 psychiatric hold
• Prisoners
• University of California employees / students or close associates of any of the key personnel on the study
• Outpatients and/or patients with chronic illness
• Inclusion:
• Demographic Criteria
• 1. Age: any (no age limit)
• 2. Language: any (with the use of interpreting services for obtaining consent)
• For the following, the infectious syndromes include meningitis, encephalitis, fever, sepsis, and pneumonia:
• Clinical Criteria
• 1. Hospital admission or transfer with diagnosis of an presumed infectious syndrome or clinical presentation consisting with an infectious syndrome, as defined below:
• * Meningitis: fever \>38°C and abnormal imaging or CSF pleocytosis (CSF white blood cell count (WBC) \> 5 /mm\^3) +/- stiff neck, +/- headache, +/- seizure
• * Encephalitis: pleocytosis and at least one of the following: altered mental status, seizures, new onset of focal neurologic findings, abnormal EEG, acute brain abnormalities on neuroimaging
• 2. No known diagnosis of non-infectious etiology responsible for symptoms
• 3. Time of enrollment: within 7 days of onset of symptoms, either initial presentation or acute exacerbation of presumed infectious syndrome.
• Specimen Criteria
• 1. cerebrospinal fluid available within 7 days of symptom onset AND within 3 days of hospital admission or transfer unless evidence for acute exacerbation as defined by abrupt decline in clinical status, worsening pleocytosis or other laboratory parameters
• 2. Minimum of 600 microliters (uL) of clinical sample, stored at 4 degrees Celsius (C) no more than 5 days (ideally frozen in -70 degrees Celsius within 24 hours of collection)
• 3. No more than 3 freeze-thaw cycles