ABSTRACT
Infections are an important cause of epilepsy in many parts of the world, and early treatment of the cause may prevent long-term neurologic sequelae. Infections are the commonest cause of status epilepticus and the second commonest cause of seizures of recent onset in children in tropical countries.1 Some 5 per cent of all patients have epilepsy as a long-term complication of CNS infection. In the neonatal period infections account for 10 per cent of seizure disorders, a percentage varying with social and environmental factors.2 The types of infection and their prevalence vary widely in different geographical regions. Only 3 per cent of 495 cases of brain damage in Finland were related to bacterial or viral disease and none were ascribed to parasitic disease, but the opposite is true in tropical regions where malaria is possibly the commonest cause of febrile seizures and acute bacterial meningitis is responsible for 20 per cent of acute symptomatic seizures in children.1
