Thursday, October 25, 2007

Hemorrhagic epidemic kerato-conjunctivitis!

Conjunctivitis = pink eye
Keratoconjunctivitis = + corneal inflammation

Ever had pink eye? Well pink eye, know as keratoconjunctivitis, is a viral eye infection that is sweeping through public school in the Northern Mariana Islands. There have been 323 cases reported thus far. Some schools have many as 87 cases, with the majority of infected children in the 3rd grade, followed by kindegarteners. Most of the infections have been involving children - very few teachers have developed pink eye. Eye doctors in the Mariana islands report that they have been receiving at least 12 patients a day for pink eye treatment. Doctors report that the current outbreak is one of the more severe forms of pink eye, classified as "hemorrhagic epidemic kerato-conjunctivitis," resulting with blood in the eyes.

Read more at http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?newsID=73612&cat=1

A few terms:
conjunctivitis = pink eye (symptoms include redness of the eyes, extreme irritation, swelling, photosensitivity, tears)
keratoconjunctivitis = pink eye + cornal inflammation

Julia (ok, I think I've caught up now...)

The link for the Canadian mumps article is http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2007/10/24/mumps-upei.html

1 comment:

MANOJ HITKARI said...

all this disease was found in Crimea in 1944, and given the name Crimean Congo hemorrhagic.
Hemorrhagic Viral Fever