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What is "pink eye?"
What is it and how do you keep from getting it? Is there a cure?
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Pink is generally a virus but can be a bacterial infection. In either case it is very infectious and who have Pink eye are warned to stay home from work or school so as not to spread the infection.
In most cases if it is a viral infection it will pass on its own. I've found warm compresses help as it draws out the crud causing the irritation. Bacterial infections require medication for which only a doctor can prescribe.
How do you know which type you have. If the irritation does not pass in 24 to 48 hours or gets worse call your doctor for an appointment. In the mean time try not to rub your eyes and wash your hands in as much hot water as you can stand with plenty of soap often. Clean hands help to keep from spreading the infection.
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Depending on how severe a case is, if you did get pink eye, sometimes it needs to be treated by a doctor. There is an ointment that they will prescribe, where a dab of it is placed at the inner corner of the eye where it melts and distributes all over your eye and under the lids.
Mom's with little kids will be very familiar with pink eye. I had 3 kids. I watched them closely if they got runny noses or stuffy noses or sneezed in allergic reactions because the natural tendency for infants and toddlers is to take the fist and rub their nose because it bothered them and also rub their eye, distributing discharge from the nose to their eyes. They could look fine when they went to bed and wake up in the morning with conjunctivitus, they eyelashes stuck by lots of crud, eyes being weepy and the lids on the inside red instead of normal pink and even the whites of eyes could appear slightly pink if the infection was severe enough.
Other than that common way kids get it, older people can get it from not having clean hands when they rub their eyes. Or people who wear contacts and don't clean them properly can get a case of it. I remember during my learning process of how to properly care for contacts, I got the most severe case I ever had. I ignored the irritated feeling for 2 days thinking it was allergies. When I woke the 3rd day, it hurt to open my eyes indoors, and being out in natural light or sunlight was excruciating. I went to a Dr. to got medicine. Girls who share makeup with each other can pass the germs in use of same eyeliner pencil, mascara or even the same applicator of powdered eye shadow. Also even if not shared, I've heard that if your own mascara gets too old, it could be harboring germs just from yourself that grow and multiply in the container which are applied every time you use your mascara. I think it the liquid makeup that is the problem, an environment hospitable enough for some kinds of germs to grow. I suppose allergies like hayfever can lead to a case if you are rubbing your eyes because they are itchy or it was an extremely high pollen count day so your eye ball now suffers from multitudes of fine scratches that you cant see with the naked eye, but those scratches can irritate enough to bring on a case of pink eye. If you keep your hands clean anytime before they get near your eyes, theres little likelihood of you experiencing it. I've only had one bad case and two light cases in my entire life and one I am sure was caused by dirty unclean contacts. It is rare in my opinion to get this kind of eye infection.
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Pink eye's proper name is conjunctivitis. Usually it's caused by bacteria or virus, but there are other things (like allergies) that can cause it too. It just means that the membrane that is around the eyelids and on top of the eye itself is irritated.
There are lots of cures - but which cure will work will depend on what the root cause of the irritation is. For viral infections, the best thing to do is simply to wait it out and make sure it doesn't spread. People take a few days off work or school, make sure to wash their hands, and try not to touch their.
The vast, vast majority of the time, pink eye wont be serious and it'll be treated, or waited out and pass in a week or so.
Best way to stop it spreading is to wash your hands well and don't share washcloths or other things that touch your face with someone who has a viral or bacterial case of pink-eye. Allergies, of course, can't be caught or spread.
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