Typhoid masquerading as Japanese encephalitis.

We describe a variant of typhoid which was clinically indistinguishable from Japanese Encephalitis (JE). The strongly encephalitic presentation led to a potentially serious delay in starting specific antibiotic therapy. Awareness of the usual form of typhoid is of great importance to Army doctors because of the presence of British soldiers and families in the Dharan area of southern Nepal where both typhoid and JE are endemic.