What you need to know about pink eye

Paging Dr. Paul: Our resident health professional shares advice on dealing with pink eye, and what to look out for.

Parents in Ottawa and eastern Ontario may start seeing cases of pink eye in their children this spring.

Pink eye, known as conjunctivitis, is an inflammation of the membrane that lines the eyelid and the eyeball.

Eastern Ontario medical officer of health Dr. Paul Roumeliotis dropped by CTV Morning Live to discuss pink eye and what parents need to know.

What is pink eye?

“Basically, it’s the covering of the eye. The white of the eye becomes red; so, it gets infected,” Dr. Roumeliotis said Wednesday.

“In most situations, you feel like you have sand in your eye or a finger in your eye. The white part of the eye becomes really pink.”

Pink eye is spread by contact with eye secretions through contaminated fingers or articles.

What are the causes of pink eye?

Dr. Roumeliotis says there are three causes of pink eye: infection, an allergic reaction or a chemical reaction.

“The most common is infection, a virus or a bacteria. Allergic is another one. With allergic, hay fever, for example, in that situation, the trick is you get it in both eyes. It’s associated with symptoms of runny nose and hay fever and those types of things – it happens every year,” Dr. Roumeliotis told CTV Morning Live.

“Chemical is one that sometimes kids can get into their mother’s perfume, for example, and irritate their eyes. Or at work, somebody can get a toxic chemical by accident and those can be emergencies. Fortunately, those are rare.”

How does pink eye spread?

According to the Eastern Ontario Health Unit, bacterial pink eye is transmitted person-to-person with direct or indirect contact with eye secretions or “healthy eyes coming in contact with secretions from the affected eye.”

“Frequency handwashing is important for the control of spread,” the health unit said.

Viral conjunctivitis is spread person-to-person by direct or indirect contact with eye secretions.

What are the symptoms of pink eye?

Dr. Roumeliotis outlined the symptoms of pink eye:

• Red or pink eye
• Itchiness or irritation of the eye
• Watery eyes
• Pain in the eye
• A thick, sticky, yellowish discharge in the eye

Dr. Roumeliotis recommends seeking treatment if the area under the lower eyelid is red or swollen.

“What you don’t want to see is difficulty seeing. If you have vision problems, that’s really beyond conjunctivitis and you need to seek medical attention,” Dr. Roumeliotis said.

Treatment/avoiding the spread of pink eye

“It could be contagious, not as much as people think,” Dr. Roumeliotis said.

“Avoid sharing towels, sharing those type of things. That’s really the most important thing.”

“The treatment really depends on the cause, but it most situations we have eyedrops, antibiotic drops, but importantly, you could put warm compresses – that soothes the eye.”

The medical officer of health says if the pink eye is caused by an allergic reaction, there are antihistamine eyedrops available.

Dr. Roumeliotis adds you can consult with a pharmacist for treatment.