Ocular manifestations in a cohort of patients with mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2007-2011

Placide Mbala-Kingebeni; Nam V Nguyen; Jean-Claude Mwanza; Jessica Carag; Susanne Linderman; Tolulope Fashina; Eddy Kinganda; Tony Wawina-Bokalanga; Amuri Aziza; Jean-Claude Makangara-Cigolo; Emmanuel Hasivirwe Vakaniaki; Yvon Anta; Jepsy Yango; Olivier Tshiani; Jason Kindrachuk; Laurens Liesenborghs; Christophe Van Dijck; Martine Peeters; Eric Delaporte; Anne W Rimoin; John W Huggins; Therese Riu-Rovira; Steve M Ahuka; James W Martin; Ian Crozier; Steven Yeh; Jean-Jacques Muyembe

doi:10.1128/asmcr.00171-25

Ocular manifestations in a cohort of patients with mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2007-2011

ASM Case Rep. 2026 Feb 11;2(2):e00171-25. doi: 10.1128/asmcr.00171-25. eCollection 2026 Mar.

Authors

Placide Mbala-Kingebeni^#^{1

2

3

4}, Nam V Nguyen^#^{5

6}, Jean-Claude Mwanza^#⁷, Jessica Carag⁸, Susanne Linderman⁸, Tolulope Fashina⁵, Eddy Kinganda^{1

2}, Tony Wawina-Bokalanga^{1

2

9}, Amuri Aziza^{1

2}, Jean-Claude Makangara-Cigolo^{1

2

10}, Emmanuel Hasivirwe Vakaniaki^{1

9}, Yvon Anta¹, Jepsy Yango¹, Olivier Tshiani^{1

2

11}, Jason Kindrachuk¹², Laurens Liesenborghs^{9

13}, Christophe Van Dijck⁹, Martine Peeters¹⁴, Eric Delaporte¹⁴, Anne W Rimoin¹⁵, John W Huggins¹⁶, Therese Riu-Rovira¹⁷, Steve M Ahuka^{1

2}, James W Martin¹⁸, Ian Crozier¹¹, Steven Yeh^{5

8

19}, Jean-Jacques Muyembe^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
² University of Kinshasa Medical School, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
³ South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁴ Department of Virology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka, Japan.
⁵ Department of Ophthalmology, Stanley M. Truhlsen Eye Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
⁶ College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
⁷ Department of Ophthalmology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
⁸ Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁹ Department of Clinical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
¹⁰ Graduate School of Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
¹¹ Clinical Monitoring Research Program Directorate, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, Maryland, USA.
¹² Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
¹³ Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
¹⁴ TransVIHMI, Université de Montpellier, INSERM, IRD, Montpellier, France.
¹⁵ Department of Epidemiology, Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
¹⁶ Division of Medicine, US Army Medical Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA.
¹⁷ Hôpital Général de Référence de Kole, Kole-sur-Lukenie, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
¹⁸ Regional Health Command-Atlantic, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, USA.
¹⁹ Global Center for Health Security, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

This report describes the ocular manifestations in a cohort of patients with Clade I mpox evaluated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2007 to 2011, as well as the clinical course of a 3-year-old patient with mpox associated with ocular disease. Among 216 patients, ocular manifestations were observed in 8.3%, including conjunctivitis, eyelid lesions, eyelid swelling, eye pain, orbital swelling, keratitis, and corneal staphyloma. These findings highlight the broad spectrum of ocular manifestations with potentially sight-threatening consequences in patients with mpox.

Keywords: Democratic Republic of the Congo; clade I monkeypox virus; conjunctivitis; corneal staphyloma; eyelid edema; keratitis; mpox; ocular manifestations.