Pink Eye, or Conjunctivitis
Conjunctivitis, caused by a common virus, is the plague of
the schoolyard and office. Some varieties of this highly contagious
virus - adenovirus - can be transmitted by infected pools of
water, and are usually short-lived, (three to four days). But
other strains occur often in wintertime and spread because people
are clustered together, and actually set off epidemics.
Children will more likely get an associated cold from the
virus than are adults. The eye can become red (from pink to blood
red), with swollen lids, tearing and discharge. In some cases,
a second eye can become involved shortly after the first.
Rubbing increases the chance of spread to the second eye,
and to family and friends. This bacteria is more contagious than
chickenpox.
If your eyes or your child's are stuck together upon waking,
and/or you have a small, tender lump in front of your ear (the
site of a lymph node) the diagnosis of pinkeye can be made.
In the past, the condition was treated with antibiotic eyedrops,
which have no effect on virus multiplication. Occasionally eye
doctors will treat the condition with a steroid eye drop, which
two-thirds of the time will help quiet the eye (reduce the swelling)
but also may inhibit your white blood cell defenses. In some
patients, this treatment can actually prolong the condition.
I have found a 150-year-old treatment for virus-caused eye infections
that is inexpensive, simple and rapidly effective. A five percent povidone
iodine solution, which is commonly used to prepare all patients
for eye surgery, happens to the effective cure. This can be either swabbed
on the inside of eyelids, or used as a drop. This results in complete
resolution for most people within 24 hours. After publishing an article
about using iodine as a treatment in the Annals of Ophthalmology,
Dr. Thomas Neuhann, a German opthalmologist, informed me that he had been
using this since experimenting on himself in the 1980s. Another paper
has been published by a Czechoslovakian researcher, who used more frequent
doses in treating an epidemic in his town.
One hundred and fifty years ago, iodine was used as a matter
of course by a doctor in Ohio to treat eye infections. For some
reason this treatment, although effective, was lost to time.
People have been using it as an antiseptic in the operating room,
but ignored its anti-virus properties. Iodine is used all the
time for eye surgeries and almost all general surgical procedures
to sterilize the operative area.
This new treatment will soon be available to ophthalmologists
in a single dose pack. When this happens we will inform you via
a posting on the Eye Advisory website.
Good hygiene is always important. Avoid touching other areas
or items such as your nose, currency, or videotape cassettes
and then rubbing your eyes.
Wash hands frequently. Use paper towels and tissues instead
of cloth, avoid eye makeup and wearing contact lenses until the
infections has healed. If cloth towels are used by the person
with pinkeye, place the towels in an area where no one else will
use them, and wash all towels and linens in hot water.
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