An epidemic of viral keratoconjunctivitis in the patients attending tertiary care hospital in north Karnataka: A hospital based cross-sectional study

Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC) is a highly contagious infection of the ocular surface. It affects all ages and socioeconomic groups.The main purpose of this study is to identify the cluster of conjunctivitis and control its spread to prevent a large community outbreak. The data was collected from the 200 patients of all age group and any sex who came with complaints of redness, watering, discharge, foreign body sensation, and pain in the eyes. Informed consent was taken. The detailed history regarding the occupation and history of recent contact was noted. The visual acuity, slit lamp examination was done and patients were categorised according to the severity of conjunctivitis. The patients were treated with topical medications and followed up after a week. In this study of 200 participants, majority of them (44.5%) belong to 16-25 years age group. The mean age was reported as 30.4 years. Based on occupation 59% were students. 15.5% population had history of travel. On assessing the severity of conjunctivitis, 45% of the cases had mild to moderate conjunctivitis and 55% of the cases had severe conjunctivitis. The conjunctivitis was found to be severe among students of 16-25 years of age. Among these students, history of contact was noted in the hostels followed by classrooms. Education and awareness regarding early identification of cases is most important. Strict personal hygiene measures and prompt isolation of cases should be done to prevent similar outbreaks of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. In our study all the patients recovered completely with good visual prognosis.