In addition to fever and headache, signs and symptoms of viral encephalomyelitis typically include evidence of neuronal dysfunction-seizures, cognitive impairment, ataxia, paralysis, etc. Virus replication can damage neurons directly by inducing cell death through apoptotic or necrotic mechanisms ( Figure 1 ) [14] . Many viruses cause more severe CNS disease in the young. For these Funding: Work from the author's laboratory was supported by the NIH/NINDS (R01 NS038932) and the Dana Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.