Isolated abducens nerve palsy in a patient with scrub typhus.

Abducens nerve palsies associated with infectious diseases are infrequent. Scrub typhus is an acute, febrile, infectious illness caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi (formerly Rickettsia tsutsugamushi), an obligate-intracellular gram-negative bacterium. The organism has been reported to be capable of entering the nervous system, causing meningitis and focal neurologic abnormalities. We report a case of isolated abducens nerve palsy associated with a scrub typhus infection.