Conjunctivitis - Symptom, Treatment And Causes

The eyes get inflamed and red in the frontal thin tissue layer that sheaths the eye in conjunctivitis, which is a quite common condition. It is colloquially referred to as red-eye. It generally starts with one eye, but after some hours, also spreads to the other eye.

There are a number of symptoms of conjunctivitis which depend upon the cause of inflammation. The most common causes of conjunctivitis are allergic reactions or viral infection. It can be irritating but it rarely affects your vision.

Conjunctivitis symptoms include the following:

• Swollen conjunctiva
• Light sensitivity
• Burning sensation
• Blurred vision
• Redness of the eyes
• Increase tear production
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Thick yellow discharge
• Itching

Summary: Conjunctivitis causes various symptoms, most among them are redness and swelling of the eyes. Other additional symptoms depend upon the cause of infection.

Your ophthalmologist can usually diagnose conjunctivitis only by looking into your eye. He or she can typically tell if the inflammation is caused by a viral or bacterial infection based on your symptoms. To confirm a diagnosis, the doctor may do the following tests:

• Slit-lamp Test: A slit lamp equipment that comprises a microscope and a high-energy beam of light is usually used to detect conjunctivitis.
• Medical Conditions: The doctor will also inquire as to whether you've been in close proximity to other people who have conjunctivitis, as well as whether any irritant has come into touch with your eye.
• Eye Culture: Your doctor uses a cotton swab to take a sample of the cells from your eyelids and sends it to a lab to be evaluated by a pathologist. This assists your doctor in determining the most appropriate treatment.
• Visual Acuity: A visual acuity test is also used by doctors to evaluate if conjunctivitis has impacted your eyesight. This test assesses your ability to read characters or symbols from a distance of 20 feet while covering one eye at a time.

Summary: There are mainly four ways to diagnose conjunctivitis, i.e. Examining the patient with a slit lamp, enquiring about their previous medical conditions, eye culture, and a test of visual acuity.

It is quite frustrating to have conjunctivitis, especially allergic conjunctivitis. Thankfully it doesn’t have serious health implications in most instances. The conjunctivitis complications are rare. When they do manifest, it might be serious. They include:

• Extreme cases of allergic conjunctivitis might result in scarring of the eyes.
• Infective conjunctivitis might result in the infection spreading to other body parts, and may trigger graver secondary infections like meningitis.

You must maintain good hygiene to prevent pink eyes. People can prevent conjunctivitis by following the given points:

• Wash your hands at intervals.
• Clean towels and washcloths on a daily basis.
• Towels and washcloths should not be shared.
• Pillowcases should be changed on a regular basis.
• Eye makeup and personal eye care products should not be shared.
• Avoid touching and rubbing your eyes.

Summary: Avoid touching your eyes without washing your hands. Maintain distance from the people infected with conjunctivitis.

Conjunctivitis doesn’t usually need any treatment as the symptoms usually disappear after a few weeks. If treatment becomes necessary, it will be cause dependent. Antibiotic eye drops may be used in extremely severe cases to remove the infection. Irritant conjunctivitis clears up as and when the causative factors are removed. Antihistamine (anti allergic medicine) can be used to treat allergic conjunctivitis. The allergen should be avoided if possible. Contact lenses are best avoided till the time the symptoms clear up. Any crusty or sticky eyelid or lash coating should be cleaned carefully using water and cotton wool.

Regular hand washes and avoiding sharing towels and pillows help stop the transmission. Consult your doctor immediately if there is any:

• Eye pain
• Light sensitivity
• Disturbance in vision
• Severe redness in both or one of the eyes
• Conjunctivitis in new born

School and Work

School and work shouldn’t be avoided in case of conjunctivitis unless there is extreme un-wellness. If multiple children in your child’s nursery or school have conjunctivitis, then it is best to keep your children at home till the time the infection subsides. Even adults who are working in such an environment and have close proximity should take a break from work till the time the infection is no more.

Inflamed conjunctiva may be so because of the following:

• A viral or bacterial infection (also called infective conjunctivitis)
• Dust mite or pollen allergies (also called allergic conjunctivitis)
• Eye getting irritated by chlorinated water or shampoo or even a stray eye lash (also called irritant conjunctivitis)
• Neonatal Conjunctivitis

Newly born babies under the age of 28 days are affected by neonatal conjunctivitis. Most instances of neonatal conjunctivitis isn’t usually serious. The mother doesn’t usually show any symptoms and thus may be unaware that they have been infected. A doctor should be consulted if there any symptoms of neonatal conjunctivitis in your baby.

Consult your doctor for post-care treatment guidelines. Along with this, try to:

• Clean your eyes with boiled water or 0.9% sodium chloride
• Avoid using corticosteroid drops or ointments

Summary: You should avoid going out if you have conjunctivitis and maintain distance from others to prevent infection.

Viral conjunctivitis can be prevented with natural remedies. Probiotics and a vitamin-enriched diet can aid to enhance eye health. If you have conjunctivitis and it is not caused by a bacterial infection, consider these home remedies which would help to relieve your symptoms.

• Supplement with zinc.
• Face your eyes with cold compresses.
• Using clean water, flush your eyes on a regular basis.
• Sleep well.
• Drink plenty of water.

Summary: Green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, cabbage fruits, and orange-colored vegetables, such as oranges, are good for preventing conjunctivitis.

Side effects of conjunctivitis treatment are:

• Rashes
• Itching
• burning sensation
• Redness
• Pain
• swelling in or around the eyes
• vision problems
• Dry mouth
• Sleepiness
• Dizziness
• nausea and vomiting
• restlessness or moodiness (in certain youngsters)
• difficulty peeing
• blurred vision, or disorientation

Summary: Rashes, itchy, or burning eyes, redness/pain, swelling in or around the eyes, and vision impairments are all more serious adverse effects of conjunctivitis treatment.

While some occurrences of pink eye may go away on their own, we recommend seeking urgent care if you have:

• Headache
• vision problems
• sensitivity to light.
• Fever

Summary: Conjunctivitis does not require urgent care but you must consult your doctor if the condition worsens.

It takes a minimum of two weeks for the recovery of conjunctivitis without the use of antibiotics and medicines. However, viral conjunctivitis can take up to 3 weeks for complete recovery. The doctor may recommend antiviral medicines for the treatment of serious conjunctivitis.

Summary: Mild conjunctivitis may be treated on its own without the use of antibiotics and eye drops in just 2 to 5 days.

The cost of conjunctivitis treatment in India is as follows:

Out-of-pocket payments for consumers with health insurance often include copays for doctor visits, prescription drug copays, or coinsurance of 10% to 50%.

Treatment for a pink eye might cost anywhere from $50 to nearly $200 or more for those who do not have health insurance. Antihistamine eye drops for allergy-related pink eye can cost anywhere from $15 to $130 or more, with the first year costing nearly $4,000 and the second year costing $1,800 or more.

Summary: You only have to spend money on the medicines required for the treatment of conjunctivitis.

You should not go out if you still have symptoms as it might spread to uninfected people as well.

Summary: Seeing your doctor is the quickest way to address bacterial pink eye symptoms.

The antibiotic chloramphenicol, which is available as eye drops, is usually the initial choice to treat bacterial conjunctivitis; it is accessible without a prescription from pharmacies.

Fluoroquinolones, such as moxifloxacin, besifloxacin, and levofloxacin, are generally effective for moderate and severe bacterial conjunctivitis.

Summary: The doctor may advise you to take eye drops and antibiotics such as fluoroquinolones to treat conjunctivitis.

Conjunctivitis can reoccur. Your eyes may react every time you come into contact with an allergen (anything that causes allergies).

Consider taking the following precautions to avoid another bout of contagious pink eye:

• Use hot water and detergent to wash bed linens, pillowcases, towels, and washcloths.
• Avoid applying eye makeup.
• Remove any old eye makeup you may have had and any makeup you may have worn right before the illness started.
• Instead of using contact lenses, wear glasses.
• Keep your spectacles clean.
• Discard the lenses that were previously used.
• Extensive wear lenses and all eyeglasses casings should be thoroughly cleaned.
• Contact solutions must be sterile.

Summary: Although bacterial conjunctivitis may recover after three or four days of treatment, the patients must follow the precautions to avoid recurrence.

Povidone-iodine 1.25% ophthalmic solution may be a safe and effective alternative to topical antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis.

Summary: Antibiotic eye drops might be used to clear the infection.

Summary: Pink eye (conjunctivitis) is characterized by inflammation of the eye's outer layer as well as the inside of the eyelid. Possible side effects are itching, discomfort, redness, tearing and burning. The following are some of the causes: Infection caused by bacteria or viruses, allergies, and irritants. The doctors may prescribe various medicines and antibiotics for the treatment of conjunctivitis.