encephalitis le·thar·gi·ca

(lə-thär′jĭ-kə)

A viral epidemic encephalitis marked by apathy, paralysis of the extrinsic eye muscle, and extreme muscular weakness. It occurred in various parts of the world between 1915 and 1926. Also called sleeping sickness.

[New Latin encephalītis lēthargica : encephalītis, encephalitis + Latin lēthargica, feminine of lēthargicus, sleepy.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

encephalitis lethargica

(lɪˈθɑːdʒɪkə)

(Pathology) pathol a technical name for sleeping sickness²

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

encephalitis lethargica - an encephalitis that was epidemic between 1915 and 1926; symptoms include paralysis of the extrinsic eye muscle and extreme muscular weakness

epidemic encephalitis, lethargic encephalitis, sleeping sickness, sleepy sickness

cephalitis, encephalitis, phrenitis - inflammation of the brain usually caused by a virus; symptoms include headache and neck pain and drowsiness and nausea and fever (`phrenitis' is no longer in scientific use)

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

The author's note at the end of the book includes information on Chinese history and encephalitis lethargica ("sleepy sickness"), and reading recommendations for both topics.

Sangster, Caitlin. Last Star Burning

After graduation he moved to a sort of asylum or nursing home for chronic neurological and psychiatric patients in New York City, the Mount Carmel hospital, where he became deeply interested, indeed obsessed, by his patients at that institution, particularly by a man unable to move due to severe parkinsonism secondary to encephalitis lethargica, due to the 1918-1920 epidemic of Spanish influenza.

Oliver Sacks: In memoriam

Louis encephalitis viruses, human endogenous retroviruses, HIV-1 infection, tick-borne encephalitis, measles, mumps and rubella, rabies, influenza, hepatic viruses; and other topics, such as viral infections in immunocompromised hosts, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, vaccines and viral/toxin-associated neurologic infections, encephalitis lethargica, and Bell's palsy and vestibular neuronitis.

Neurovirology

Awakenings (1973), his book about a group of patients who had survived the great encephalitis lethargica epidemic of the early 20th century, inspired the 1990 Academy Award-nominated film starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams.

Oliver Sacks Celebrates His 80th Birthday

THE STORY: It is 1971, and Audrey De'Ath, a victim of the encephalitis lethargica epidemic that swept through Europe in the early 20th century, has been catatonic in a London mental hospital since 1922.

Umbrella