Holiday gatherings over the past couple of weeks have led to a rise in cases of pink eye, according to local medical experts.
Conjunctivitis, more commonly known as pink eye, can sometimes be a sign that a patient has COVID-19.
When patients were first being diagnosed with COVID-19, nurses at Baptist Health Paducah said they would look for pink eye, because the viral illness can travel to one or both eyes.
“It spreads on surfaces and on skin contact, so if I were to shake your hand, hug you, and I had some drainage from my eye, I got it on my hand, now I’ve passed it to you or to the surface you may touch,” said nurse practitioner Kathy Crawford with Baptist Health Paducah.
“That was actually one of the first signs they had us looking for,” Crawford said, recalling how health care workers spotted COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic. “The redness to your eye or sinus congestion or a cough, it was one of the hallmark signs were looking there for a while.”
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Crawford said Baptist Health Paducah doesn’t have exact data for the number of pink eye cases treated during this holiday season, but the hospital has seen a rise in pink eye since the start of COVID.
However, the nurse said pink eye isn’t only an indicator of COVID-19.
If someone has pink eye, they could possibly have the flu or strep throat, because those illnesses can also spread to the eyes.
“Viral pink eye or conjunctivitis is more prevalent in viruses, so if you have like a flu or COVID or something like that, then it can spread to the eye causing inflammation and causing pink eye,” said Crawford.
She said the holiday season provided more opportunities for people to gather and interact with each other, increasing their opportunities to get sick.
“The close proximity in houses, in cars, on airplanes, traveling to their destinations and back, I do, I think that the more that they’re together and the closer that they are, it spreads easier,” said Crawford.
The most common pink eye symptoms are redness in one or both eyes, itchiness, sensitivity to light and tearing.
According to the Mayo Clinic, people may also experience a discharge in one or both eyes that forms a crust during the night and can prevent their eyes from opening in the morning.
For those who have pink eye, nurses advised patting the affected eye with a warm, wet, clean towel. Throw away eye makeup and make sure to change the bedsheets.
