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. 2024 May 30;11(6):ofae290.
doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofae290. eCollection 2024 Jun.

Ocular Mpox in a Breastfeeding Healthcare Provider

Sara Lovett  1 , Jayne Griffith  1 , Nick Lehnertz  1 , Teresa Fox  2 , Greg Siwek  2 , Aaron M T Barnes  1 , Aaron D Kofman  3 , Kaitlin Hufstetler  3   4 , Alexander L Greninger  5 , Michael B Townsend  6 , William C Carson  6 , Ruth Lynfield  1 , Shama Cash-Goldwasser  3   7
Affiliations

Ocular Mpox in a Breastfeeding Healthcare Provider

Sara Lovett et al. Open Forum Infect Dis. .

Abstract

A healthcare provider unknowingly treated a patient with mpox and subsequently developed ocular mpox without rash. She breastfed during illness; her infant was not infected. This report addresses 3 challenges in mpox management and control: diagnosis in the absence of rash, exposures in healthcare settings, and management of lactating patients.

Keywords: breastfeeding; infection control; mpox; occupational exposure; severe disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest. A. L. G. reports contract testing from Abbott, Cepheid, Novavax, Pfizer, Janssen, and Hologic and research support from Gilead and Merck, outside the described work. All other authors report no potential conflicts.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Timeline of clinical and epidemiological events by day of symptom onset in an ocular mpox case in a breastfeeding healthcare provider—Minnesota, 2022. Abbreviations: ELISA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; IgG, immunoglobulin G; MPXV, monkeypoxvirus; OPXV, orthopoxvirus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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