Ocular Adverse Events following Yellow Fever Vaccination: A Case Series

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To describe four cases of ocular adverse events resembling intraocular inflammatory and non-inflammatory conditions following yellow fever vaccination (YFV) during a recent yellow fever (YF) outbreak in Brazil.

Methods

Charts of patients diagnosed with ocular adverse events after YFV between January 2017 and January 2019 at two tertiary referral centers in Brazil.

Results

Four patients (two adults and two children) are reported. Case 1 presented with typical findings of central serous chorioretinopathy which resolved spontaneously; case 2 was diagnosed with acute Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease; cases 3 and 4 had bilateral diffuse retinal vasculitis. In the absence of infectious and noninfectious disorders, the temporal association between stand-alone YFV and onset of ocular symptoms within 15 days was interpreted as evidence of causation.

Conclusions

Clinicians should be aware of the wide spectrum of possible ocular adverse reactions to stand-alone YFV.

KEYWORDS:

• Yellow fever
• vaccination
• drug-related side effects and adverse reactions
• central serous chorioretinopathy
• Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease
• vasculitis

Declaration of interests

The authors have no competing financial interests or personal relationships that may have influenced the work reported in this paper.