New pathogens causing CNS infections

Many emerging infections, mainly viruses, are contributing to the reshaping of the global landscape of central nervous system (CNS) infections. Several new organisms causing CNS infection have been discovered over the last decade, and new neurological syndromes have been described for many other known pathogens. Advances in diagnostic techniques such as modern DNA amplification methods have led to the detection of some of the newly identified pathogens. The global attention generated by disease epidemics has helped in the improved understanding of the neurological complications associated with some known pathogens, such as Zika virus, Ebola virus and Enterovirus D68. A better understanding of the evolution of the new pathogens, their hostvector- environment dynamics, and their disease causation is clearly needed for us to be better prepared to meet these emerging threats.