If your husband has no other medical history of importance and they cleared him by doing a scan of the brain for tumors, aneurysms, bleeds, etc. And your husband is not a abuser of illicit drug substances (especially cocaine); did they do a toxicology screen in the ER....THEN, the most likely cause of the episode is going to be the viral illness. HOWEVER, that s not to say that he couldn t ve had a seizure that just happened to manifest itself at the very same moment that he just happened to be suffering from a severe viral infection. That is a long shot in terms of medical probabilities.....but unfortunately it ain t zero. Therefore, as a neurologist myself who considers himself rather competent and always suspicious of ER s who tell you that something is OBVIOUSLY due to something else without getting the specialist involved....I would recommend getting your husband over the virus and then, getting him to a competent neurologist interested in working him up thoroughly and not just reading the ER report as a conclusion. If you would like me to give you more information or work with you to see he gets properly worked up in the coming days and weeks to rule epilepsy completely out then, drop me a line at: bit.ly/drdariushsaghafi Happy Thanksgiving...I hope your husband will feel well enough by tomorrow to enjoy some of his caring wife s good cooking....or will it be the caring wife s parents or inlaws doing the cooking tomorrow?? LOL..... Good luck.