A case of encephalitis following COVID-19 vaccine

The neurotropism of the coronavirus disease 2019 has been well known, with reports showing that COVID-19 can cause neurological diseases such as acute transverse myelitis, neuromyelitis optica, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, and acute motor axonal neuropathy [ , , ]. However, the mechanism by which it causes these diseases remains unclear.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System related to COVID-19 vaccines had reported that as of September 9, 2021, 66 cases had developed encephalitis However, the details of such cases have not been revealed.

We herein present a case that developed encephalitis after COVID-19 vaccination.

After receiving her COVID-19 vaccination [BNT162b2], she began having trouble focusing her eyes the next day.

To date, no report on COVID-19 vaccine-related encephalitis has been published.

COVID-19 vaccine-associated encephalitis was strongly suspected in the current case owing to the close temporal relationship between COVID-19 vaccination and the worsening symptoms.

There has been an ongoing discussion related to neurological impairment after vaccination with COVID-19 [3,5], with three cases of encephalitis having been reported after vaccination [6,7], all of whom developed psychiatric symptoms without MRI findings.

The CDC had reported a total of 66 cases of encephalitis associated with COVID-19 vaccines.

The submitted reports did not indicate that the vaccine caused or contributed to the adverse events.

The current report is anecdotal and does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines and encephalitis.

Vaccination certainly has enormous benefits and provides hope toward eventually mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report.