Acute cerebellar ataxia: a rare presentation of scrub typhus in pediatric age group

Abstract

Scrub typhus is known to cause local and systemic vasculitic response in almost all the systems of the body. Scrub typhus very rarely presents itself with CNS manifestations. In central nervous system it most commonly causes meningitis and encephalitis although several other atypical presentations have been documented. Cerebellar ataxia, which is the lack of coordination, has a number of causes none of which are as uncommon or unheard of as Scrub Typhus. We report a case of a 15 years old child presenting with fever and isolated acute cerebellitis. Scrub Typhus was diagnosed by serum IgM ELISA. Patient showed rapid response to doxycycline therapy.