The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Conjunctivitis ‘on the way out’ from State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 26, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Conjunctivitis ‘on the way out’ from State

N. Rahul

HYDERABAD: Conjunctivitis, the ‘red eye’ disease that gripped the State for nearly a month, is on the decline.

Doctors and health authorities confirmed that the infection which was so virulent earlier this month had entered the dying phase. B. Motilal, Joint Director, National Programme for Control of Blindness, said the decline was reported at the weekly review meeting of district-level programme officers on Saturday. The numbers had come down considerably over the previous week in all districts, except in Hyderabad, Warangal and Nizamabad. The three districts reported over a thousand cases during the week at Government hospitals.

V. Chandrasekhar Reddy, Superintendent of Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital here, said the number of patients visiting the hospital with conjunctivitis had dropped from hundred a day ten days ago to 60 to 80 a day. He expected the disease to withdraw after the rain stopped and the weather dried up. Conjunctivitis as sourced to ‘adeno’ virus group was rampant in the State, affecting people of all age groups, having assumed an epidemic form. Red eyes, foreign body sensation, swelling and stickiness of the lid in mornings and discharge were the characteristics of the disease.

However, doctors said people had a misconception that it was caused by eye-to-eye contact. Dr. Rao B.Y, an ophthalmologist at Gandhi Hospital, said there were no complications associated with conjunctivitis but ‘keratitis’ (inflammation of the black eye) could occur in cases where the illness prolonged beyond five days. The patients will have pain if the black eye was involved. Homeo stores in Hyderabad also did a brisk business selling pills and eye drops both for preventive and curative aspects of disease.

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