{"id":11882,"date":"2026-04-15T21:44:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T02:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11882"},"modified":"2026-04-15T21:44:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T02:44:30","slug":"mpox-can-infect-and-replicate-in-the-brain-nih-researchers-say-in-fatal-hiv-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/04\/15\/mpox-can-infect-and-replicate-in-the-brain-nih-researchers-say-in-fatal-hiv-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Mpox Can Infect and Replicate in the Brain, NIH Researchers Say in Fatal HIV Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-04-14\/mpox-can-infect-replicate-in-the-brain-nih-researchers-say-in-fatal-hiv-case\">Bloomberg<\/a> A man with advanced HIV died with drug-resistant mpox replicating in his brain, US scientists found, in a case that shows how the virus can persist and evolve just as global health programs to check such infections are being scaled back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The findings, based on a detailed autopsy by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchsquare.com\/article\/rs-9282876\/v1\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"released, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">released<\/a>\u00a0as a preprint Thursday, suggest mpox can spread far beyond the skin lesions that typically define the disease. The virus was found infecting the brain and continuing to multiply there despite lower viral levels than in other tissues. The case also showed mutations linked to resistance to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/monkeypox\/hcp\/clinical-care\/tecovirimat.html\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"tecovirimat, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tecovirimat<\/a>, a drug used against mpox that studies later found offers&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMoa2506495\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"little benefit, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">little benefit<\/a>&nbsp;for many patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report highlights&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMoa2411368\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"risks, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">risks<\/a>&nbsp;that could increase in parts of Africa, where mpox is spreading among populations with high rates of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/khub.africacdc.org\/records\/resource?id=407\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"untreated HIV, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">untreated HIV<\/a>. Researchers&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/langlo\/article\/PIIS2214-109X(25)00241-4\/fulltext\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"warned, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">warned<\/a>&nbsp;in September that cuts to global health funding are undermining HIV care and outbreak response, creating conditions for longer infections and more severe disease.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bloomberg A man with advanced HIV died with drug-resistant mpox replicating in his brain, US scientists found, in a case that shows how the virus can persist and evolve just as global health programs to check such infections are being scaled back. The findings, based on a detailed autopsy by researchers at the National Institutes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monkeypox"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11883,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11882\/revisions\/11883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}