Reactivation of herpes simplex virus 2 presenting as recurrent acute retinal necrosis following COVID-19 vaccination.

PURPOSE: Acute retinal necrosis (ARN) is a vision-threatening uveitis caused by herpesviruses reactivation, which has recently been suggested to be associated with COVID-19 infection and after vaccination against it.

CASE DESCRIPTION: We present the case of a 58-year-old Japanese woman with ARN in the left eye due to herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV2) two days after receiving the fifth dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The patient demonstrated an ARN history in the right eye and had been treated for it. The patient was administered oral steroids and immunosuppressive drugs for mixed connective tissue disease and organizing pneumonia. The patient was treated with intravenous acyclovir and foscarnet, and a vitrectomy was performed for retinal detachment. The lesion took approximately two months to scar.

CONCLUSION

This report suggests that patients with an ARN history might be at risk of ARN recurrence because of the reactivation of the herpes simplex virus induced by COVID-19 vaccination.