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Journalism of Courage
12.30pm, Dr Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital, Daryaganj: There is a long queue at the Red Eye Clinic, a triage area for conjunctivitis patients to avoid further spread of the infection among the hundreds who come here daily to address several eye-related diseases. With children being affected the most this season, the mothers are having a hard time settling them down. Most of these children have contracted the infection from schools, where they huddle closely with their peer group, and have brought it home, infecting elders in the process. It’s a bit surreal, seeing troubled families in dark glasses, restless as the irritation can feel like constant pin pricks in the eye.
Dark glasses are a must for those infected because their pupils tend to dilate and become extremely sensitive to any source of light, which may worsen your symptoms. Fifty six-year-old Sheela Devi from Burari has watery discharge throughout the day and is unable to open her eyes in the morning as the fluid crusts up around her eyelids while sleeping. “My five-year-old granddaughter had it first, picking it up from her school, followed by my grandson, daughter-in-law, husband and myself. All of us contracted the infection in a span of just three days. The constant stinging sensation doesn’t let you focus on anything else,” she says. Harkirat, a 20-year-old graphics designer working with the hospital, picked it up at work. His sister developed symptoms within 24 hours after which both have isolated themselves with a pandemic-like alertness so that their parents do not get affected. Both are now recovering well.
Since children are the worst-hit, how can parents take care of their children who are down with conjunctivitis? “Since the infection is transmitted by contaminated hands the most, we should be religiously teaching our kids to wash their hands well and often with water and soap. Children tend to itch and touch their face often for which they should also be taught not to rub their eyes, not share their eye drops, tissues, washcloths and towels. Most cases of conjunctivitis in children are also accompanied by a runny nose and cough. Most children with conjunctivitis do not need treatment with antibiotics as recovery time is the same with or without them,” says Dr Gupta.
Parents should also dust and vacuum the house often, keep scented or irritating chemicals to a minimum, wash their own hands and use sanitiser before touching their child’s face or feeding them.
He cites hygiene and sanitation as the key triggers. “The recent floods in Delhi led to contamination of even fresh water sources. Besides, people waded into the flood water and gambolled in it as if they were in a swimming pool. The microbes enter the eyes easily if you are immersing yourself in dirty water. Besides, the unusual surge this year could be because of the mutation of the the virus or the bacteria responsible for conjunctivitis. Usually, the microbes mutate every two to three years,” he says.
Dr Gupta says though the infection is highly contagious, it is self-limiting and recovery is fast. “A majority of patients don’t even come to the hospital though I have been seeing 30-40 adult patients and 10-15 paediatric patients every day. As a community hospital, we get patients from differing socio-economic backgrounds. But had people not forgotten the hygiene and sanitisation discipline of Covid, the numbers would not have swollen. We have become particularly careless about hand hygiene; we must wash our hands before touching our face and mouth, having a meal and after using a washroom. Community-level awareness about hygiene must be ingrained considering viruses and bacteria will only mutate and become robust and transmissible. Hygiene is necessary because we cannot avoid the major source of contaminants and social interactions like offices, public transport, cinema halls, public libraries, restaurants and schools,” he adds.
Dr Gupta has taken it upon himself to dispel some myths around conjunctivitis. “Many believe that they can contract the infection by looking at the eyes of an infected person,” he says. His colleague, Dr Neha Kapur, senior consultant, cornea and refractive surgeon, is busy cautioning everybody against self-medication. “Unfortunately pharmacists or chemists give steroid-based eye drops which give immediate relief. But this can lead to glaucoma. We administer and monitor steroids only in exceptional cases,” she says. Sometimes our cure lies in following basic health hygiene.
HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR CHILD
1) Clean their eyes with cotton balls soaked in warm water. Then discard the cotton ball to avoid recontamination.
2) If a single eye has been affected, then clean it in such a manner, taking the swab from the inner side of the eye to the outer edge and away from the nose, so that the other eye doesn’t get infected by an accidental touch.
3) Do not try to clean inside the eyelids as this may further damage the conjunctiva.
4) Use artificial tears, do not administer either antibiotics or antihistamines without first consulting your doctor. Only an ophthalmologist can guide you on the kind of eyedrops your child needs.
5) Ask your children to wipe their eyes with a clean washcloth, not with their hands.
6) Ideally wash and change your child’s sheet and towels everyday to prevent the infection spreading to the other eye if only one is affected, or spreading to other members of the household.
7) Children who wear contact lenses should not use them until their conjunctivitis has cleared up.
