“Encephalitis lethargica is a viral epidemic encephalitis that occurred in many parts of the world between 1915 and 1926. Also known as sleeping sickness or sleepy sickness, those who survived the initial infection typically displayed long term apathy, paralysis of the extrinsic eye muscles and extreme muscular weaknesses [Sacks 1982]. There is still disagreement over which virus was involved in this disease but the disorder often preceded Parkinsonism, suggesting that there must have been similarities in neurological damage. Although little or nothing has been published on the roll of oxidative stress in Encephalitis lethargica, damage by reactive oxygen species has been implicated in other forms of such disorders, as for example in Japanese encephalitis [Liao et al. 2003].”