A 58-year-old woman may have developed rare brain disease as a result of coronavirus, doctors say.

Physicians who treated an unknown woman in Detroit for presumptive Covid-19 have reported she developed acute necrotising encephalitis (ANE), a central nervous infection that mostly affects young children.

According to the report published in Radiology, a female airline worker in her late fifties initially presented with a 3-day history of cough, fever, and altered mental status.

After she initially tested negative for influenza the woman then tested presumptively positive for Covid-19 using a rapid test developed in-house.

When the patient remained lethargic the doctors completed MRI and CT scans, which they said revealed abnormalities in the parts of the brain that control consciousness, sensation and memory function.

The health system said that ANE is a rare condition, particularly within adults, and is associated with poor clinical outcomes.

“The patient remains hospitalised and is in serious condition,” the health system said.

According to the paper, the brain disease has previously been associated with other viral infections but hadn’t yet presented itself as a side effect of the novel coronavirus.

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This case report is thought to be the first recorded instance of an association between the brain disease and coronavirus, according to the Henry Ford Health System.

“This is significant for all providers to be aware of and looking out for in patients who present with an altered level of consciousness. We need to be thinking of how we’re going to incorporate patients with severe neurological disease into our treatment paradigm," said Dr Elissa Fory, a neurologist who was involved in making the diagnosis.