The months from June to September bring summer showers in most states of India. Depending on where you live, your city or town may experience light, moderate or heavy rainfall during this season. If you like the monsoon, these may be some of the best months of the year. However, no matter how heavy or light the rains are and how much or little you like them, there is one condition that you need to be careful about — conjunctivitis.
What is Pink Eye or Conjunctivitis?
There is a thin and clear membrane that protects your eye from dust, grime and other micro-particles every day. This membrane is known as the conjunctiva. When this membrane is infected or inflamed, the condition is known as pink eye or conjunctivitis. The blood vessels in the conjunctiva become irritated and swollen, making them redder and more visible. This leads to a pinking tinge all over the white part of the eye, leading to the term ‘pink eye.’
While this condition can be irritating or even painful, it does not affect your vision in any manner. However, it is important to take some essential precautions because conjunctivitis can be contagious.
The Link Between Conjunctivitis and the Monsoons
Depending on the cause, there are different types of conjunctivitis like bacterial and viral conjunctivitis and allergic conjunctivitis. During the rainy season, conjunctivitis or pink eye is more common because the weather is conducive to the growth of viruses and bacteria. The rise in humidity and the drop in heat allow these microorganisms to thrive more than they do in the summer.
This, in turn, increases the chances of coming into contact with viruses and bacteria that cause pink eye. The level of allergens in the atmosphere may also rise during the rainy season, leading to a rise in the number of allergic conjunctivitis cases. This, coupled with poor personal hygiene and easy contamination, can often lead to widespread cases of pink eye during the rainy season.
If someone in your home or workplace is affected, it is best to allow them to rest and recover in isolation if possible. This will allow other members of your family to remain healthy. That said, there are some tips and tricks that can help limit the spread of this infection even if isolation is not an option.
4 Tips to Prevent Pink Eye This Rainy Season
There are many simple things you can do on a daily basis to ensure that no matter how intense the monsoon season may be, you don’t fall victim to conjunctivitis. Here’s a closer look at some such solutions.
- Practise Good Personal Hygiene
Wash your hands regularly with soap and lukewarm or warm water, particularly before you touch your face or eyes, and after you have touched any potential contaminant. This will help ensure that your hands are clean and devoid of any allergens or contaminants that could lead to pink eye.
- Avoid Sharing Personal Items
Personal artefacts like hand towels, towels, eye makeup and other cosmetics, eyeglasses and eye drops can all end up spreading the infection if you are not careful. During the monsoons in particular (but at all times in general), avoid sharing these personal items with others or borrowing them from other people.
- Wash Your Bedding in Hot Water
Your bedding like bedspreads, blankets and especially your pillow covers need to be clean and contaminant-free. So, wash these items at appropriate intervals using hot water and adequate detergent. This will help kill most germs, thus ensuring that you do not catch conjunctivitis from anybody else in your living space.
- Clean Your Contact Lenses
Even if you do not share your contact lenses with other people, you frequently touch them at the time of removing or wearing the lenses. If your hands are not clean, it could contaminate the lenses. And when you wear them the next time, the infection could take root in your conjunctiva. To avoid this, make sure you always wash the lenses with an appropriate lens-cleaning solution.
Conclusion
While conjunctivitis itself may not require any hospitalisation in most cases, the rainy season may also bring in other infections like dengue and malaria. These conditions require more extensive medical care and hospitalisation for a few days or so. With a health insurance plan in your financial portfolio, you can be prepared for these medical emergencies.
In case you or anyone in your family covered by your medical insurance policy falls sick and is hospitalised, all you need to do is check if the emergency and related expenses are covered by your insurance. Then, file your claim with the insurer, and a health insurance TPA will process it promptly. If your claim is verified and approved, your insurer will either reimburse your costs or directly settle them with the hospital as per the nature of the claim.