Ocular Manifestation of COVID-19: A Review

In December month of 2019, a few pneumonia cases of mysterious origin were discovered in a city in China. Later it was found to be coronavirus which caused mild to moderate upper respiratory tract infections in patients. WHO designated it a pandemic in March 2020. The virus belongs to the coronaviridae family. The clinical symptoms that are seen in covid-19 are fever, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, etc. ocular manifestations of covid are rare, but some of them include dryness of the eye, pain, discharge, itching, etc. the most common and essential manifestation is conjunctivitis. It is spread through droplets. Proper protection and hygiene can minimize the spread of this infection.

Other than the very much known respiratory illnesses such as cough, cold, loss of taste, smell, etc., the covid 19 was also seen to have some ocular manifestations. Studies showed 1 out of 10 patients to have some visual change during the illness period. The most common ocular manifestation is that of conjunctivitis. Although, conjunctivitis must be differentiated from other causes of eye redness. There are many different kinds of conjunctivitis of different etiologies; it is essential to know the exact etiological factor for providing the patient with definitive treatment. As covid is very contagious, ocular examination and management are also challenging since it can spread from the doctor to the ophthalmologist attending them. So, prevention is possible to deal with this ongoing pandemic and its ophthalmic complications.