Background

Abstract

Human coronaviruses, first characterized in the 1960s, are responsible for a substantial proportion of upper respiratory tract infections in children, with occasional cases of pneumonia in infants and young adults; for a few decades since their first identification, their pathogenicity has been considered to be low; non-respiratory localizations of the disease, including neurological complications, have been described as uncommon events [1]. In the new millennium, new more virulent coronaviruses made their appearance in humans SARS-CoV, causing the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (2002–2004) and MERS-CoV, causing the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (2012–ongoing); also SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV were mostly associated to respiratory disease, but different organs and body systems could be involved, including the Central Nervous System [2], as recently summarized by Verstrepen et al. [3].