How to prevent eye infections?

Eye infections are pretty common and a lot of people suffer from at least one type during his or her life. People need to know that eye infections can be bacterial, viral or fungal. A person will end up with an eye infection when some of these microorganisms enter some part of the eyeball or the area that surrounds the eye. Every part of the eye can be affected. However, in most cases of eye infections, the parts that are affected are the cornea and conjunctiva, which is the moist membrane lining the outer and inner eyelids. When some of the deeper parts of the eye are infected, then it is a case of some serious eye infection. People need to know that it is important to treat eye infections as soon as they appear because most of them can spread or get more complicated if they are left untreated.

Symptoms

People need not make their own diagnosis because certain conditions like eye allergies and dry eyes have almost the same symptoms as eye infections. Some of the most common symptoms of eye infections are redness, pain, discharge, watering and sensitivity to the light. One of the things that are not the same with eye infections and allergies is that with allergies both eyes are affected and with infections it is usually only one eye.

Causes and types of eye infections

There are a lot of types of eye infections but probably the most common one is pink eye or conjunctivitis. This eye infection is easily spread among people and it is most common among children. Some of the other eye infections are ocular herpes, fungal keratitis, acanthamoeba keratitis, trachoma and endophthalmitis.

Treatment for eye infections

The good thing is that most eye infections are easily treated with prescription antibiotic eye drops or ointments.

Prevention

Avoiding contact with people who already suffers from eye infection is the best thing a person can do in order not to get affected by an infection. Using anti-infective sprays and cleansers when a person is in public areas is always good. Whenever a person is about to touch the eyes or contact lenses, he or she should wash the hands first. If any of the family members gets infected with the red eye, it is important to keep the towels and bedding clean and do not share them with the infected people. People should also avoid sleeping with contact lenses.