Since December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic caused by the highly transmissible severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which involves multiple systems.
Ophthalmic involvement can present with acute conjunctivitis, symptoms of which are redness of the eye, ocular irritation, eye soreness, foreign body sensation, tearing, whitish-mucoid discharge, eyelid swelling which can happen during the disease and even after recovery up to 2-6 weeks. Coronaviruses can also cause ocular inflammatory diseases including anterior and posterior uveitis, retinitis, vasculitis, and optic neuritis, which need urgent attention to salvage vision. Currently the most dreaded of all is the fungal involvement of the eye, sinuses, and the brain caused by Mucor. The predisposing factors for this fungal infection are uncontrolled diabetes, prolonged oxygen support, and unmonitored steroid usage. Ocular involvement can occur in isolation or in association with COVID-19 related multi-system inflammatory disease.
The critically ill COVID -19 patients who are administered indiscriminate and unmonitored steroids are at risk of developing steroid-related ocular complications like a fungal infection.
It is suggested for the patients who have any sort of ocular discomfort or vision-related problem to undergo a detailed eye examination.
We at United Medicity have a good Ophthalmology facility with a very good team of doctors headed By Dr. Manish Tandon. The other faculty at United Medicity includes Dr. Gyanendra Singh and Dr. Neha Singh, who is serving the population of Prayagraj and nearby districts and most of our patients have done well in terms of recovery of vision.