Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
BMC Infect Dis, 2013;13:179.
PMID: 23594500 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2334-13-179

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Dengue is a common illness in the tropics. Equally common are neurological complications that stem from dengue infection. However, to date, parkinsonism following dengue has not been reported in medical literature.
CASE PRESENTATION: A previously well 18-year old man developed parkinsonism, in addition to other neurological symptoms following serologically confirmed dengue fever. Alternative etiologies were excluded by way of imaging and blood investigations.
CONCLUSIONS: The authors detail the first reported case of parkinsonism complicating dengue fever. Keeping rare presentations of common illnesses in mind, it behoves clinicians to consider parkinsonism as a complication following dengue infection. This would prevent injudicious treatment with L-dopa and dopamine agonists. Immunosuppression with steroids has been shown to be helpful in certain cases.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.