Key result
A 66-year-old woman receiving maintenance rituximab therapy for follicular lymphoma developed fatal enterovirus 71 rhomboencephalitis.
Case Report (n=1)
Rituximab therapy may be associated with severe and fatal enteroviral meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised adults.
Rituximab may heighten fatal EV71 encephalitis risk in lymphoma; leaves open causality and need for surveillance studies in B-cell depletion.
To the Editor: Enterovirus 71 (EV-71) causes primarily asymptomatic or benign infections in children <5 years of age. However, it may cause severe and sometimes fatal neurologic complications, such as brainstem encephalitis and polio-like paralysis (1). Over the last 15 years, large outbreaks of EV-71 infection have been described in the Asia-Pacific region, associated with the regular emergence of new genetic lineages (2). Since the 1978 outbreak in Hungary, rare sporadic cases have been reported in Europe (1). In France, during 2000-2009, a total of 81 hospitalized patients with EV-17 infection were reported by the sentinel surveillance system, including 2 child deaths, 1 due to proven rhombencephalitis
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Kassab et al. (2013) conducted a case report in Enterovirus 71 rhomboencephalitis (n=1). Rituximab was evaluated on Clinical outcome. A 66-year-old woman receiving maintenance rituximab therapy for follicular lymphoma developed fatal enterovirus 71 rhomboencephalitis.
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