Who Gets Pink Eye?(2)

Who Gets Pink Eye?

Anyone of any age can have pink eye. But children contract conjunctivitis more often than adults because they have plenty of colds and respiratory tract infections that can be an underlying cause.

Newborn babies also are at significant risk for pink eye. This is because a baby can obtain a bacterial infection causing pink eye while making contact with its mother during the birth process. In fact, according to Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2008, conjunctivitis is found in 1.6 percent to 12 percent of all newborn babies in the United States.

Sometimes, infections in newborn infants are due to common pathogens such as strep or staph. A mother who is infected with a sexually transmitted disease, such as gonorrhea or chlamydia, also can pass along this infection to the baby — which can show up as pink eye. This is why newly born infants must be evaluated for gonococcal and chlamydial conjunctivitis as well as other forms, so antibiotic treatment can begin immediately, before any eye damage occurs.

As a precaution, most newborn infant eyes are treated with silver nitrate and/or antibiotic ointments, to make sure any possible infections are stopped before they can cause damage. However, this preventive treatment does not work for chlamydial conjunctivitis, which must be treated with antibiotics after a diagnosis.

When exposed to infected secretions, sexually active adults also can have pink eye due to bacteria associated with STDs. If you have a heavy discharge of mucus from your eyes, and other causes of pink eye have been ruled out, be sure and relate any concerns you might have to your doctor.

Contact lens wearers particularly are vulnerable to pink eye, which can be caused by infections from poor hygiene in the handling of lenses, solutions and cases. Also, some soft contact lens wearers can develop an abnormal immune response that can cause giant papillary conjunctivitis (GPC)

Pink eye also can be a symptom of many types of underlying diseases, especially those causing inflammation, including:

*Blepharitis
*Dry eye (keratoconjunctivitis sicca)
*Lyme disease
*Collagen and vascular diseases
*Reiter's syndrome
*Sarcoidosis
*Stevens-Johnson syndrome
In these cases, the disease itself must be treated, to alleviate pink eye and other possible symptoms.

And, of course, anyone who starts sneezing at the first sign of ragweed likely is familiar with allergy symptoms such as a pink eye, eye irritation and itchiness related to non-contagious allergic conjunctivitis.

See you in part (3)