A Rare Cause of Childhood Encephalitis: Human Coronavirus HKU1
Meral Karadağ1
, Serdal Güngö2
1Malatya Training and Research Hospital, Pediatric Neurology, Malatya, Türkiye
2İnönü University, Pediatric Neurology, Malatya, Türkiye
Keywords: coronavirüs hku1, encephalitis
Abstract
Coronaviruses are primarily known for causing respiratory infections; however, emerging evidence suggests they may also cause neurological complications. We present a lethal case of encephalitis in a previously healthy five-year-old boy, in whom Human Coronavirus HKU1 (HCoV-HKU1) was identified through respiratory microarray and postmortem cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) PCR analysis. This report underscores the necessity of including coronaviruses in the differential diagnosis of pediatric encephalitis of unknown etiology.
Cite this article as: Karadag M, Gungor S. A Rare Cause of Childhood Encephalitis: Human Coronavirus HKU1. Pediatr Acad Case Rep. 2026;5(1):12-4.
The parents’ of this patient consent was obtained for this study.
The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to authorship and/or publication of the article.
The authors received no financial support for the research and/or publication of this article.