COVID-19 – OCULAR INVOLVMENT, FINDINGS AND THE RISK OF POTENTIAL TRANSMISSION

Abstract

The coronavirus disease COVID-19 affects primarily the respiratory system in humans, but it also affects many other organs, including the eyes. The ocular surface is considered as a SarsCoV-2 gateway; it also plays an important role in its spread through the conjunctival secretions. Conjunctival secretion swabs of 50 people were examined by real-time PCR methodology. All of them were hospitalized due to medium and moderately severe COVID-19 in Lozenetz Hospital Sofia during the period of October-November 2021. The results showed that the severity of clinical findings in the anterior eye segment and subjective complaints did not correspond to the presence of Sars-Cov-2 in conjunctival samples. Nevertheless, eye care specialists need to take notice while working in their ophthalmic practices in order to reduce the risk of virus transmission and diminish SarsCoV-2 infection among visiting patients and health care professionals. An effective program and specific precautions need to be exploited in order to effectively prevent disease spread.

Keywords

• covid-19
• conjunctival samples
• rt- pcr
• sarscov-2
• eye symptoms