Ocular disease resulting from infection with Rift Valley fever virus

Abstract

The demonstration of serological conversion to Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus in paired acute and convalescent sera established RVF as the cause of two cases of retinitis seen during the 1977 RVF epidemic in Egypt. Colour photography of the retina revealed macular, paramacular and extramacular exudate-like lesions with associated haemorrage and oedema. One patient has not recovered central vision during a six-month convalescence. An ongoing study of a larger group of RVF patients with ocular disease revealed that the findings presented for these two cases represented the types of lesions most frequently encountered during the epidemic.