Eye Care for All

WORLD SIGHT DAY is celebrated worldwide on the 2nd Thursday of October since the year 2000. The theme for this year world Sight Day is ‘Eye Care for All’. On this day general awareness on Eye Care and importance of sight is sought to be disseminated to the general public. The District Health Society (National Programme for Control of Blindness) Kohima District would like to enlighten the public about one very rampant eye condition afflicting mainly young girls of our state.
In the last 2 years or so a new form of chronic conjunctivitis has been sweeping across the Eye care centre’s in our state. It is characterized by copious sticky discharge throughout the day and night and tends to cause matting or gluing of the eyelashes in the morning. There will be complaints of blurred vision due to this sticky discharge as well as the swelling on the inside of the eyelids. Most will also have significant itching. On examining the eye, there is intense conjunctival Hypertrophy (ie swelling and proliferation of the membrane covering the white part of the eyeball) and redness most predominantly on the lower fornix (ie the part of the eye which becomes exposed when the lower eyelid is pulled down with the patient looking up). The conjunctival surface looks like that of a ripe strawberry and sometimes it may be difficult to make the exposed abnormally swollen tissue go back into the eye. It is interesting to note that 99% of the patients are girls between the ages of 15 to 20 years with signs of use of eyeliners. Many usually say that they have been suffering from watering, discharge, itching, blurred vision for many months’ even years which distinguishes it from the common epidemic conjunctivitis which affects people of all ages and both sexes and becomes cured by a week or so.
This new eye disease predominantly affecting young girls is not confined to towns but has spread to the smaller townships and even villages. It is very strongly associated with the use of eyeliners although a clinical scientific study would be required to prove it. It occurs in girls who insist that they use only branded eyeliners which underline the ever present dangers of fake branded good in the market. The less said about non branded products the better. The disease becomes less common in the 20+ (plus) group and is rare beyond 25+(plus), which is consistent with the fact the young teenagers have a very reactive immune response system which exhibit an exaggerated response to any allergen.
This condition requires prolonged treatment sometimes more than 2 months for complete cure. The good news is it responds very well to treatment particularly when the offending allergen (ie the eyeliners) is withdrawn. Therefore young girls need to be made aware about the dangers of the use of the eyeliners which can cause prolonged discomfort to the eyes and may even leave permanent visual impairment.

Dr. E. Phyantsuthung
District Nodal Officer
(NPCP) Kohima & Sr. Eye Specialist NHAK