Epidemics and outbreaks of peripheral nervous system disorders: I. infectious and immune-mediated causes.

The history of mankind is marked by numerous epidemics, some of which involved diseases of the peripheral nervous system, either infectious or otherwise. We describe here the three main infectious causes of epidemics that affect the peripheral nervous system: leprosy, poliomyelitis and diphtheria. We then discuss the main epidemics of immune-mediated origin.