Fatal Encephalitis and Meningitis at the Gold Coast Hospital, 1980 to 1996

The recent association of a fatal human case of encephalitis with a newly identified lyssavirus apparently acquired from a native Australian bat has highlighted the possibility that previous human infections have passed urecognised. Infected bats have been identified on the Queensland Gold Coast where extensive close contact between bats and humans has occurred for many years. In an attempt to identify nervously unrecognised cases of fatal lyssavirus encephalitis, the medical records of the Gold Coast Hospital over a 16 years period from 1980 to 1996 were reviewed. Of 20 cases coded as 'encephalitis' or 'meningitis' where death occurred, none was consistent with an encephalitis due to an unidentified virus.