The Truth About the Corona Virus and your Eyes

The recent outbreak of the Coronavirus in China is scaring many Americans.  At this time, there are 28 countries with confirmed cases of the virus, including the United States.  Knowing the facts can bring relief and understanding of this sometimes deadly infection.

What is Coronavirus?

The current outbreak of illness is also known as 2019-nCoV.  Coronaviruses, in general, are a large family of viruses that are common in different species of animals such as bats, camels, cows, and cats.  It is rare, but these animal coronaviruses can infect people.  This was also true of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which had an outbreak in 2003.

What are the symptoms?

The symptoms of Coronavirus are similar to other upper respiratory illnesses.  Fever, shortness of breath, and cough are the main symptoms of this disease.  These symptoms will occur 2 - 14 days after exposure to the virus.  It is important to seek care if you have recently been to China.

Does it affect the eyes?

Yes, since the coronavirus affects mucous membranes, it certainly can affect the eyes.  The ocular symptoms of 2019-nCoV are similar to any other virus conjunctivitis, or pink eye.  

These symptoms include red eyes, watering, burning, grittiness, pain, mild mucus discharge.  This may affect one eye to start and quickly spread to the fellow eye.  There may be crusting of the lashes upon awakening.  Puffy eyes and swelling of the tissues inside the eye may occur.

Some of these symptoms, like redness, watering, and grittiness are similar to the symptoms you feel with dry eye.  The key difference here should be the mucus discharge throughout the day.    With classic dry eye symptoms, you should not have a mucus discharge throughout the day.  

You should consider this to be a contagious condition especially if there is discharge (either watery or mucus) present.  Frequent hand washing and limiting touching your eyes is important to reduce the spread of this virus.  Wearing a pair of glasses may help you to be less likely to touch your eyes.

How is it transmitted?

This virus is transmitted through the air by droplets of the virus coming from the infected person via coughing or sneezing.  When these droplets land in the mouths or noses of another person, they can be breathed into the lungs.  Therefore, you do not even need to have touched an infected person to have the virus spread.  Being within a 6-foot radius is close enough.  

This virus acts like a typical virus in that it is most transmissible when the person who has it is most symptomatic.  Therefore, when they have a fever and are coughing and sneezing more, there is more of the virus in the air around them.  

Also, since this virus has a 2 to 14 day incubation period, patients may be infectious to others prior to experiencing their own symptoms.  Although, if they are not coughing and sneezing yet, it may be harder to transmit at this stage.

How can I protect myself from it?

There are several simple steps that the CDC recommends to prevent the spread of this illness.  Wash your hands regularly throughout the day.  Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.  Decrease or completely avoid contact with anyone who is sick.

This advice will help protect you from a whole host of infections, including 2019-CoV.  Face masks may help prevent the spread of infection.  But, it may be more useful for the infected person to wear a mask.  Wearing a face mask can protect you from transmitting the virus from your hands to your own mouth.  There is also protection from droplets if an infected person sneezes or coughs around you.

What else can I do?

In the 19 years that I have been treating patients, I have found that when we know better, we do better.  Take a moment to do a little research on your own about this virus.  These links from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) and WebMD give a thorough account of the infection.

Also, you can use an artificial tear to rinse your eyes after you have been in public.  This may help to flush irritants from your eyes.  Check out the Ultimate Guide to Artificial Tears here: https://pam-theriot.ck.page/5047fff087