Conjunctivitis: causes, symptoms and treatment

Are your eyes watering a lot, burning, or pus appearing? Most likely, this is how conjunctivitis manifests itself. This disease affects not only children, but also adults. Let's figure out what causes conjunctivitis and how to deal with it.

Causes of conjunctivitis

There may be several factors that lead to the occurrence of this disease. Most often, the eyes begin to turn red and watery due to an allergic reaction, eye irritation under the influence of a foreign body, or infection.

The causative agent of infection can be:

• Bacteria that cause lung diseases, such as staphylococci or microorganisms responsible for diseases of the genitourinary system.
• Viruses that cause colds.

Allergic conjunctivitis occurs under the influence of an irritating substance - an allergen. This type of conjunctivitis is common in people who are sick asthma or allergic rhinitis. This type of disease also includes conjunctivitis caused by decorative cosmetics or medications, such as eye drops.

Types of conjunctivitis

Depending on the cause of the disease, conjunctivitis is divided into the following types:

• Allergy is explained by the human body’s reaction to the action of an irritating allergen. The irritant may be plant pollen or dust. In this case, the allergen causes the release of active cells of the conjunctival immune system, which provokes redness and discomfort in the eye.

• Viral conjunctivitis is a consequence of a viral disease. Due to the disease, a person’s immunity is significantly reduced. Then, along with dirt, viruses can get into the eye, causing conjunctivitis.
• Adenoviral conjunctivitis occurs due to the penetration of respiratory viruses. Most often, this form of conjunctivitis appears in the fall or spring, when an outbreak of respiratory diseases occurs.
• The bacterial form of conjunctivitis is provoked by various types of bacteria or eye injury, dirt that gets into the tear duct.

Symptoms of conjunctivitis

Symptoms common to all types of conjunctivitis include burning and irritation in the eyes, redness of the eyeball and mucous membrane of the eyes, and intolerance to bright light. The patient may feel a slight sore throat, his temperature rises and headache. Along with these manifestations, there are symptoms characteristic of each type of conjunctivitis separately.

For conjunctivitis caused by allergies, both eyes are affected at the same time. If conjunctivitis is caused by eye drops, it begins to appear a few hours after using the drug. First there is swelling, then a burning sensation and purulent discharge occur. With the bacterial form of the disease, abundant purulent discharge appears first in one eye, then the infection spreads to the other. The adenoviral form is characterized by a long incubation period. Then there is a sharp deterioration in the condition. Swelling, redness and hemorrhages occur on the eyeball. After a few days, the disease spreads to the other eye.

Treatment of conjunctivitis

Almost all varieties of this disease are contagious. The only exception is the allergic form. This means that with such an illness it is important to observe all personal hygiene measures - use a separate towel, do not touch your eyes with dirty hands and in every possible way avoid close contact with the patient.

Treatment of conjunctivitis must be prescribed by a doctor. The allergic form requires the mandatory use of antihistamines. These can be syrups, tablets or eye drops.

To treat the bacterial form, special eye drops or ointments containing antibiotics are used. In recent years, to get rid of bacterial conjunctivitis, the drug Floxal has been used, which kills pathogenic bacteria. To prevent relapse of the disease, it is necessary to use the prescribed drug for at least 7 days, even if symptoms of the disease no longer appear. This is due to the fact that bacteria can adapt to the effects of the drug. Then repeated treatment will not be as effective and will take much longer.

Viral conjunctivitis can be cured with drugs containing interferon. If a bacterial infection occurs, drops containing antibiotics are used.

In general, treatment for any form of conjunctivitis takes about two to three weeks. But in some severe cases, treatment can last more than a month.

Drops for conjunctivitis

Depending on the type of disease, appropriate medications are prescribed. For example, to treat the viral form, drops are used that act on viruses at the cellular level. They create conditions that are impossible for the virus to reproduce and destroy them. Most often, the following drops are used against viral conjunctivitis:

• Florenal - acts on viral cells. It must be instilled into both eyes on the recommendation of an ophthalmologist several times a day.
• Tebrofen has the same principle of action, but is used no more than 3 times a day.
• Gludantan drops are highly effective and have no side effects. They can be used to eliminate allergic conjunctivitis.
• Interferon in solutions is used to neutralize infection and increase the immunity of the eye mucosa.

To get rid of the bacterial form, antimicrobial drugs are needed. In this case, the following drops are prescribed:

• Albucid is available in different dosages. Lower concentrations of drugs are used to treat children. These drops are highly effective and eliminate redness and swelling well.
• Oftadec can be used up to 5 times a day; it is a very effective drug.
• Tobrex drops are a fairly effective drug that quickly relieves the symptoms of the disease.

Traditional treatment of conjunctivitis

During the treatment of conjunctivitis prescribed by a doctor, you can use traditional methods as a supplement to reduce the symptoms of the disease. If you decide to use such recipes, be sure to consult with the specialist conducting the treatment.

An infusion of rose petals is used for compresses and eye washing. To prepare it, grind a spoonful of rose petals and brew with boiling water (1 glass), leave for about half an hour. The compress from this infusion should be kept on the eyes for 30 minutes or longer. In the same way, you can prepare an infusion of cornflower flowers and use it to wash the eyes from pus.

If conjunctivitis is in an advanced stage, a lot of pus is released, then you can apply compresses to the eyes from rosehip decoction. To do this, take a large spoon of dried rose hips, pour a glass of water and put on fire. After boiling, turn off the heat and leave the berries to steep for half an hour.

Juice from aloe. You can buy it in the form of a ready-made drug at a pharmacy or squeeze it yourself. Aloe juice should be mixed with water in a ratio of 1 to 10 and compresses should be made from it four times a day.

To get rid of conjunctivitis, it is good to use drops with honey. Mix a spoonful of honey and two spoons of clean water and use it as eye drops. The same mixture can be used to apply compresses to the eyes.

To wash the eyes from purulent discharge, you can use chamomile. Pour a glass of boiling water over two large spoons of dried chamomile flowers and leave covered for an hour. Then strain and rinse your eyes as needed.

All recipes from traditional healers can only be used as an additional remedy, but not as the main treatment.