ABSTRACT
There was already speculation about infections being involved in the etiology of schizophrenia back in Kraepelin and Bleuler's times: I ,2 the spirochete causing neurosyphilis had been identified, and it seemed that the involvement of infections in the etiology of schizophrenia could not be ruled out, Psychotic symptoms associated with influenza infections during the pandemic of 1918-1919 fueled these speculations. The infectious etiology theory was then forgotten until findings of abnormalities in the immune system among patients with schizophrenia, and observations that viruses were capable of causing new symptoms decades after the primary infection, revived interest.3
