Leptospirosis is an acute infectious disease that manifests as a biphasic sickness with an initial leptospiraemic and a subsequent immunological phase. It is caused by a spirochete belonging to the genus Leptospira. Leptospirosis seldom manifests clinically as a primary neurological impairment. We report a case of a middle -aged man who was initially diagnosed with leptospirosis and subsequently complicated by development of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. This intriguing case study emphasises the importance of identifying uncommon leptospirosis symptoms in endemic regions such as Malaysia.

Introduction: This study aims to describe the content of several pre-independence medical journals published in British Malaya. Methods: The content of five journals were retrieved from National Library of Singapore e-resources and print collection of the Reference Library, Institute for Medical Research, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The content of these journals was classified and descriptive analysis performed. Results: The five journals identified were Journal of the Straits Medical Association, Journal of the Malaya Branch of the British Medical Association, Malaya Medical Journal, Malayan Medical Journal and Journal of the Malaya Branch of the British Medical Association (new series). A total of 81 issues with 873 articles were retrieved. Almost one-third of articles were concerned with these topics: malaria, mosquito control, beri-beri, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, helminthiasis, leprosy and cholera. One-fifth of the articles were case reports and 95% of the articles were written by single authors. Discussion The content of these journals is a good resource for those who are interested in the history of medicine – it provided substantial details on the state of public health and chronicled the medical writings of medical workers in British Malaya. It illustrates well the introduction of Western medicine to tackle health problems that arose from the interplay of immigration, poor environmental sanitation and economic exploitation.
History of Medicine