Disease phenotypes in emerging infectious ocular conditions: how strongly disease defining are they?

Abstract

AbstractEmergent and resurgent infectious diseases are major causes of systemic morbidity and death that are expanding worldwide mainly because of climate changes and globalization.An array of ocular manifestations, involving mainly the posterior segment, have been recently described in association with specific arthropod vector‐borne diseases including rickettsioses, West Nile virus, Rift Valley fever, Dengue fever, and Chikungunya. They include anterior uveitis, retinitis, chorioretinitis, retinal vasculitis and optic nerve involvement. Proper clinical diagnosis of any of these infectious diseases is based on epidemiological data, history, systemic symptoms and signs, and the pattern of ocular involvement. Several fairly typical fundus findings may help establish the diagnosis in specific emergent infectious diseases while serologic testing is pending.