Experiencing dryness or itchy eyes? Study finds 1 in 10 COVID-19 patients experience conjunctivitis symptoms

COVID-19 symptoms are not just related to fever, cough or breathing difficulties, it is more than that. A recent study found an increasing link between coronavirus infection and people experiencing eye problems such as dryness, redness and itchy eyes.

The traditional belief regarding COVID-19 was that it was only a respiratory infection, but the revelations regarding the impact on the ocular system paved a new path for the researchers. A team of researchers from the Kiran C.

Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine Nova Southeastern University found a long-lasting impact of COVID-19 on eye health. The study published in the Cureus: Journal of Medical Science detected conjunctivitis as the most common ocular symptoms with nearly one in every ten patients having the symptoms linked with COVID-19.

Impact of Covid on eyes

As per the researchers, these symptoms reported more severe complications like episcleritis a benign, inflammatory disease which affects the clear tissue that covers the white part of your eyes and is not linked to COVID-19 infection.

The other one is Ophthalmoparesis a kind of weakness or paralysis of any of the ocular muscles that garner movement of the eye. The third one is central Retinal Artery Occlusion (CRAO) — a serious eye disease in which the main artery supplying the retina is blocked due to an atherosclerotic plaque.

In some patients, cranial nerve palsies are also detected. While experiencing this the individual took longer time than usual to move their eyes. The condition can even lead to vision loss.