Avoid physical contact with conjunctivitis patients: Docs

City hospitals have been getting nearly 15-25 eye flu cases in the OPD’s daily. As this is a highly contagious disease, doctors’ advise people to take preventive measures.Dr Ramesh, eye surgeon at Dr Ramesh Eye Clinic, said, “With change in season and increase in humidity level cases of conjunctivitis are common these days. As this is a highly-communicable disease, once it spreads can presume epidemic proportions. Members of the same family need to be careful. This time eye flu is very resistant, and is likely to come back, even after it is cured once.”

City hospitals have been getting nearly 15-25 eye flu cases in the OPD’s daily. As this is a highly contagious disease, doctors’ advise people to take preventive measures.Dr Ramesh, eye surgeon at Dr Ramesh Eye Clinic, said, “With change in season and increase in humidity level cases of conjunctivitis are common these days. As this is a highly-communicable disease, once it spreads can presume epidemic proportions. Members of the same family need to be careful. This time eye flu is very resistant, and is likely to come back, even after it is cured once.”

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He said, “People who approach the chemists after feeling irritation or redness in their eyes and get some eye drops, should avoid this practice because viruses are also of different types and only a specialist can recognise, how to treat it well. The viral conjunctivitis causes infection in the cornea, which leads to blur vision, pain in eye and irritation etc.”
Dr Ramesh said patients having some eye infections earlier or diabetes, need to be extra careful, as eye flu could lead to serious complications if not treated well.

Dr Harpreet Kaur, Eye specialist at Guru Teg Bahadur Charitable Hospital said, “These days number of eye flu cases has increased suddenly. Variation in temperature makes a perfect habitat for the viruses to cultivate.”
She said patients should not touch their eyes. Adopting good hygiene practices and avoiding touching eye could prevent many from the virus.

FLU DOESN’T SPREAD THROUGH EYE CONTACT

Looking into someone’s eyes having flu causes the disease is a myth, the doctors said.

Dr Harpreet Kaur said, “It’s not an air-borne disease, where virus travels through air. The virus in the disease travels through physical contact only and thus looking at someone’s eyes doesn’t cause eye flu.”

Dr Ramesh said, “We advise wearing goggles at times just to protect eyes from dust or direct sunlight or light that could cause irritation.”