COVID-19 pandemic: Impact on the rate of viral conjunctivitis

• Published in: Archivos de la Sociedad Española de Oftalmología Vol. 97; no. 2; pp. 63 - 69
• Main Authors: Conde Bachiller, Y, Puente Gete, B, Gil Ibáñez, L, Esquivel Benito, G, Asencio Duran, M, Dabad Moreno, J V
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Spain 01.02.2022
• Subjects: COVID-19; Pandemic; Viral conjunctivitis; Adenoviral conjunctivitis; Respiratory infection
• ISSN: 1989-7286
• DOI: 10.1016/j.oftal.2021.03.002

The COVID-19 pandemic led Spain to order a state of alert with the cessation of non-essential activities on 14 March 2020, and to implement public health interventions (such as home confinement) and other health recommendations to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (hand washing and the obligation to wear face-masks). These factors could have influenced the rate of viral conjunctivitis. In this retrospective, noninterventional, descriptive study, the incidence of viral conjunctivitis in an emergency department of a national hospital is compared over two distinct time periods: pre-COVID (13 March-30 September 2019, one year before the start of the pandemic) and COVID (13 March-30 September 2020). In the first period there were 436 cases of conjunctivitis, of which 168 (38.5%) were confirmed cases of viral conjunctivitis 168 (38.5%), while in the second period there were 121 recorded cases, of which the most frequent were allergic and traumatic (23 cases; 19% each group), bacterial (15 cases; 12.3%) and viral (15 cases; 12.3%). The diagnosis of viral conjunctivitis is the one that suffered the most significant relative reduction (48.5%), while other types of conjunctivitis hardly changed their relative frequency between these two periods of time. Viral conjunctivitis is the most frequent infectious disease of the eye and has a transmission rate similar to that of coronavirus, so the measures implemented could positively affect its incidence.