18 September 2010
By Sumitra Deb Roy
Mumbai, India
Stay indoors and maintain hygiene if your eyes are itchy, watery and painful, cautioned the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday. This is because over 850 people have sought treatment at the civic hospitals for conjunctivitis in the last fortnight. The infection could be more rampant as private eye clinics, too, are treating at least 4-10 patients daily.
Calling it as a seasonal trend, BMC’s executive health officer, Dr Guirish Ambe, said, "Conjunctivitis is common in September and October. He brushed aside the observation of a section of private doctors that it is a more severe strain.
"Our doctors have not found any virulence or change in the symptoms," he added. The crowded ophthalmology OPDs at the staterun JJ Hospital is also treating at least 12 cases in a day.
"It would be premature to call it rampant," said dean of JJ Hospital Dr TP Lahane. Some tertiary eye care centres, however, have been witnessing what they call a slightly scary trend.
"Many patients are moving to the secondary level of bacterial infection," said cornea consultant Dr Kavita Rao at the Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital.
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