Pink eye (acute conjunctivitis)

For a lay person:

Acute conjunctivitis, or pink eye, is inflammation of the thin clear layer covering the white of the eye and inner eyelids. It is usually caused by a virus, bacteria or allergy, makes the eyes red, gritty and watery or sticky, and most cases clear within one to two weeks.

For a trained medical person:

Viral conjunctivitis (commonly adenovirus) is highly contagious and self-limiting; bacterial conjunctivitis presents with purulent discharge; allergic conjunctivitis is bilateral and itchy. Diagnosis is clinical, with swabs for severe, neonatal or suspected gonococcal or chlamydial disease. Management is hygiene and lubricants, topical antibiotics for bacterial cases where needed, and antihistamine or mast-cell-stabiliser drops for allergic disease.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook gives Chinese herbal formulas for this condition without a full pattern differentiation. Treatment still follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: See a doctor urgently for eye pain, reduced vision, sensitivity to light, a red eye in a contact lens wearer or a newborn with sticky eyes. Do not put home-made herbal preparations into the eye.