A 30-year-old man developed severe encephalitis with status epilepticus following 2 days of an acute gastroenteritislike illness while in Iraq. Tests for usual arboviral and enteroviral pathogens were negative, but the sandfly fever virus (Sicilian type) immunoglobulin M was positive. Neurologic deficits persist 3 months after the onset of his illness. To our knowledge, this is the first report of sandfly fever virus (Sicilian type)-associated encephalitis. When tests for more common pathogens are negative, providers taking care of soldiers or travelers returning from endemic areas should consider sandfly fever in the differential diagnosis of unexplained encephalitis.
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Lesho et al. (2004) studied this question.
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