COVID-19 and the Human Eye: Conjunctivitis, a Lone COVID-19 Finding - A Case-Control Study.
Med Princ Pract
; 31(1): 66-73, 2022.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1606632
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
COVID-19 has varied clinical manifestations, from asymptomatic to severe cases, and conjunctivitis is one of them, but sometimes a lone initial symptom is found to be present. The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of conjunctivitis as the first symptom in COVID-19 patients in a primary healthcare unit.METHODOLOGY:
A retrospective study was conducted, analyzing the presenting complains/symptoms and results of COVID-19-confirmatory tests.RESULTS:
Out of the 672 cases that were sent for RT-PCR testing, only 121 (18%) were found to be positive. Among these, 2.67% patients had both conjunctivitis and COVID-19, 77.77% patients had unilateral eye affected, while 22.22% had bilateral conjunctivitis of varying degrees. Fifteen patients diagnosed to have both acute conjunctivitis and COVID-19 presented other symptoms associated with COVID-19 infection. Three patients had only acute conjunctivitis during their entire course of COVID-19.CONCLUSIONS:
Conjunctivitis is a symptom of COVID-19 and may be the first sign of the infection, until the onset of the classical manifestations; such patients may continue to be a viral reservoir. Physicians should not miss unilateral conjunctivitis as it can be the only presenting complaint of COVID-19 during the initial phase, which might worsen if undetected and can aid in the spread of the contagion.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
RNA, Viral
/
Conjunctivitis
/
Eye
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
/
Young adult
Language:
English
Journal:
Med Princ Pract
Journal subject:
Education
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
000521808
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