Infectious Primary Myelitis

Primary infectious myelitis has several causes that are treatable therefore an etiology should be aggressively investigated. The most common causes are viruses such as the herpes viruses, arboviruses, enteroviruses and less likely retroviruses such as HIV and HTLV-1. The majority of the bacterial, mycobacterial, parasitic and fungal etiologies are treatable but diagnosis may be challenging. An MRI of the spine and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination should be done on patients to help diagnose and guide therapy.