There is speculation that Adolf Hitler may have had encephalitis lethargica when he was a young adult (in addition to the more substantial case for Parkinsonism in his later years). Mervyn Peake (1911–1968), author of the Gormenghast books, began his decline towards death which was initially attributed to encephalitis lethargica with Parkinsons disease–like symptoms, although others have later suggested his decline in health and eventual death may have been due to Lewy body dementia. Those described in the book Awakenings by the British neurologist Oliver Sacks. Jane Norton Grew Morgan, wife of J. P. Morgan Jr., died of encephalitis lethargica in 1925. At the time, doctors attributed her encephalitis to having contracted influenza during the 1918 pandemic. References
Further reading
Crosby, Molly Caldwell (2010). Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicines Greatest Mysteries. New York: Penguin/Berkley. – Describes the history of the disease, and the epidemic of the 1920s. Reid, A.H.; McCall, S.; Henry, J.M. ; Taubenberger, J.K. (2001). "Experimenting on the Past: The Enigma of von Economos Encephalitis Lethargica". J. Neuropathol. Exp. Neurol. 60 (7): 663–670. doi:10.1093/jnen/60.7.663. PMID 11444794. Sacks, Oliver (1990). Awakenings. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-375-70405-5. OCLC 21910570. Sacks O (1983). "The origin of Awakenings". Br. Med. J. (Clin. Res. Ed.). 287 (6409): 1968–1969. doi:10.1136/bmj.287.6409.1968. PMC 1550182. PMID 6418286. Vilensky, J.A. ; Foley, P.; Gilman, S. (2007). "Children and Encephalitis Lethargica: A Historical Review". Pediatr. Neurol. 37 (2, August): 79–84. doi:10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2007.04.012. PMID 17675021. Vilensky, Joel A., ed. (2010). Encephalitis Lethargica: During and After the Epidemic. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0190452209.
Just 10 days before von Economos breakthrough in Vienna, Jean-René Cruchet described 40 cases of "subacute encephalomyelitis" in France.The number of people infected during the ten years of the pandemic is unknown, but it is estimated that more than 1 million people contracted the disease, which directly caused more than 500,000 deaths. Encephalitis lethargica assumed its most virulent form between October 1918 and January 1919. The pandemic disappeared in 1927, as abruptly and mysteriously as it first appeared. The great encephalitis pandemic coincided with the 1918 influenza pandemic, and it is likely that the influenza virus potentiated the effects of the causative agent of the encephalitis or lowered resistance to it in a catastrophic way. Aftermath
Many surviving patients of the 1915–1926 pandemic seemed to make a complete recovery and return to their normal lives. However, the majority of survivors subsequently developed neurological or psychiatric disorders, often after years or decades of seemingly perfect health. Post-encephalitic syndromes varied widely: sometimes they proceeded rapidly, leading to profound disability or death; sometimes very slowly; sometimes they progressed to a certain point and then stayed at this point for years or decades; and sometimes, following their initial onslaught, they remitted and disappeared. Postencephalitic Parkinsonism is perhaps the most widely recognized of such syndromes. Notable cases
Notable cases include:

Muriel "Kit" Richardson (née Hewitt), first wife of actor Sir Ralph Richardson, died of the condition in October 1942, having first shown symptoms in 1927–28.