Growing up as a child in the Deep South of the US where the local population had a healthy suspicion of vaccination, we were often swept by plagues of measles, the ‘Flu, digestive disorders and respiratory complains, but one of the most dreaded was an outbreak of the fabled Pink Eye. “Pink Eye?” I hear you ask incredulously, “what is that?” This nasty contagion appeared regularly and would lay low great swathes of the population, especially school children. The treatment necessitated your being shut up in a stuffy bed room, all curtains closed and pinned up with only a dim night light. Bed rest with plenty of fluids and perfect stillness lest the condition worsen and blindness or permanent visual weakness result. Hands were washed with coal tar soap and towels boiled. The best thing about all this fuss was missing school, and in fact the outbreak was often so virulent that the county school would close altogether!

By now I am sure the reader has figured out that the provincial Carolinians were having a skirmish with a garden variety of conjunctivitis, no doubt the bacterial type, which was spreading because of the highly communal and close nature of life in a small rural area. This common eye infection comes in several variations and also closely resembles various other common eye complaints. While they are all potentially VERY uncomfortable and many are contagious few pose any long term threat and my Grandmother’s worries about blindness and ending up “weak eyed” were as groundless as many of her other medical theories.

Conjunctivitis is, simply, the inflammation of the conjunctiva, a mucus membrane lining around the eye in the orbit of the skull. It is usually the result of bacteria—germs—passed by hand, towel or pets. There are also viral forms and becoming more widespread is a host of allergenic manifestations. The condition is characterized by red, itchy eyes which either water or produce pus. Often the sclera or “white” of the eye becomes a bright rose colour, hence the America term “Pink Eye”. In India it is known as “Madras Eye”! Another common eye condition, blepharitis, is a different type of inflammation of the EYE LID with a secondary irritation of the eye (due to debris from the eye lid falling into the eye) and this is often mistaken for conjunctivitis. Actually it is not uncommon for both complaints to occur at the same time, and both are usually easy to cure.