In this video segment, learn about the possible correlation between arthritis and your eye health. Steven Rosenberg MD Ped Ophth DrMDK.com

Video Transcription

Male1: A common question is—a kid is sent home from school because the kid’s eyes are red, do you have to treat every red eye and is it contagious and when are they contagious? Male2: Well, red eyes can mean a lot of different things. The most common reason is actually, during the spring, it is probably allergies, however the thing that everybody is worried about is a viral conjunctivitis. A viral conjunctivitis is contagious and is something that can spread to another kids, but it does not have a specific treatment. There is no specific antibiotics to treat it and there is no specific thing that you can do to prevent it from happening except for cleanliness and things like changing your pillow case, changing your towels each day and making sure you wash your hands before you touch your eyes So generally, a child who does have a viral conjunctivitis and if they are confirmed to have viral conjunctivitis is contagious as long as the eye is tearing. Now, if you are worried about bacterial conjunctivitis, it is when we get a bacterial conjunctivitis however, the eye will have much thicker discharge and almost like a pus coming out of the eye. And if you see anything like that that involves that you immediately need antibiotic treatment. Male1: Sometimes a kid has swollen fingers and feet and they think it is arthritis and they are not sure and they send them to an ophthalmologist sometimes, why? Male2: Well, if you have arthritis in kids, remember there is an inflammation. There are a lot of different conditions either juvenile rheumatoid arthritis or other types of arthritis that are inflammatory, you can have an inflammation of the eye, either called an iriitis or uveitis, which are basically inflammation in the eye that can cause over time destruction or problems in the eye that can cause scarring in the eye, can cause a raise in the pressure in the eye that can lead to blindness and can also lead to cataracts in the eye. So when there is inflammation that is left uncontrolled, it can cause damage over time, even if the child does not have red eyes or irritated eyes. If the eye of the child does have those other problems, it also has a red eye and irritated eye, there is more of an urgency for you to go to an ophthalmologist to make sure there is no active inflammation going on. Male1: And this can be controlled, right? Male2: This is usually controlled with steroids or with either in the eyes or orally or other medications that fight the immune system and that is probably the use or the medications that are used for the arthritis in general.