A Case of Persistently Positive Mpox PCR for 1 Year in a Patient With Advanced HIV

Haitham Alaithan; Neha Venkatesh; Prathit A Kulkarni; Richard J Hamill; Maria C Rodriguez-Barradas

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofaf230

A Case of Persistently Positive Mpox PCR for 1 Year in a Patient With Advanced HIV

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2025 Apr 16;12(5):ofaf230. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaf230. eCollection 2025 May.

Authors

Haitham Alaithan¹, Neha Venkatesh², Prathit A Kulkarni^{1

3}, Richard J Hamill^{1

3}, Maria C Rodriguez-Barradas^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Section, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
² Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
³ Medical Care Line, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, Texas, USA.

Abstract

Mpox (previously called monkeypox) is a self-limited vesiculopustular skin disease caused by the monkeypox virus. Symptoms and skin findings typically resolve within 4 weeks in immunocompetent patients. This report describes a case of persistent Mpox infection with polymerase chain reaction positivity lasting greater than 1 year after initial infection in a patient with advanced HIV.

Keywords: Mpox; human immunodeficiency virus; orthopoxvirus; positive PCR.