Shlomo Shinnar, MD, PhD, Director,
Monteifiore Comprehensive Epilepsy Management Center & Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Dr. Shinnar is the principal investigator of a long-term NIINDS study the Consequences of Prolonged Febrile Seizures in Childhood (FEBSTAT). So far his group has looked at over 140 children who have seizures of 30 minutes or more (status epilepticus) and found that HHV-6 and HHV-7 primary infections are associated with roughly 35% of these cases.

Link: FEBSTAT study

Leon Epstein, MD,
Northwestern University

Dr. Epstein is working with Shinnar’s group to do the viral studies. He and his associates previously showed that HHV-6B and HHV-7 are the most common causes of febrile seizures in children and also demonstrated that HHV-6B can be concentrated in the hippocampus of immunosuppressed patients with limbic seizures.

Katherine Ward, MD
Royal Free University College Medical School

Dr. Ward established that primary HHV-6 & & can cause febrile seizures and represent a significant cause of neurological morbidity in the United Kingdom.

Carolyn Hall, MD,
Pediatrics, University of Rochester

Dr. Hall worked with Leon Epstein to study HHV-6 neuroinvasion and persistent infection in children.