Kabul residents complain contagious eye infection

KABUL (Pajhwok): Some residents in the capital Kabul say they and their family members have been infected with eye infection while physicians termed the disease contagious and urged patients to refer to the doctor as soon as possible.

Doctors say that bacteria and viruses cause eye inflammation, and if the eye becomes inflamed and not shown to the doctor on time, the eye inflammation could cause poor vision and make eye watery.

Pajhwok Afghan News talked to some people in the capital Kabul, they and their family members suffered from an eye infections.

Abdul Wahab, 32, suffered from eyes infection for the past week, Ten days back his daughter, who is a student of class one in a private school also affected by eye infection.

He said: “First one of my daughter’s classmates was affected by eye infections and then my daughter, she suffered to the extent that she couldn’t sleep for nine nights, nine days, and even one day her eyes bled due to the pain and burning.”

He said, when they referred to the doctor, the doctor called this disease contagious and dangerous, but after using the medicine, the child recovered completely.

Abdul Wahab says, this disease was transferred from his daughter to himself, and he also had severe pain and burning in his eyes, which is now recovering with the use of medicine.

Mohammad Qasim, another patient said: “Two weeks ago, I went to a friend’s house, his eyes were red and puffy, when I returned home after a day, I found redness and swelling in my right eye, it slowly increased, it was painful and had secretions.”

He also referred to a doctor for treatment and was now recovering.

Nagina, a resident of Kart-I-Naw locality of Kabul, said: “My one-year-old nephew is in kindergarten, he got an eye disease from one of his classmates, he had a lot of problem, he was in pain and burning, he was crying all the time, he didn’t get better until we took him to the doctor.”

He said the eye infection spread from his nephew in the entire house.

Public Health Ministry’s Spokesperson Dr. Sharafat Zaman without providing figures of eyes infection patients said this virus had spread and was contagious.

Dr. Najibullah Usmani, an expert of eye diseases in Kabul said, eye inflammation caused by a virus is very common and now existed among the people of Kabul.

He added: “Usually, this disease used to come for six or seven months, it became widespread and then disappeared, but it this time this disease is around for two years in the society and it has not decreased at all, sometimes its intensity increases, sometimes it is moderate, but this time the disease never disappeared, we see a large number of these patients every day in private clinics and government and non-government hospitals.”

He called this disease severe and said that redness, severe pain, burning, itching, swelling and secretions in the eyes are its symptoms.

Dr. Usmani said most of the source of transmission of this disease is from the swimming pool, he added that contact with a sick person and using personal belongings of a sick person can also cause the transmission of this disease to a healthy person.

He said most of the time one eye is affected by this disease, but sometimes both eyes can be affected.

Dr. Usmani said: “The patient should go to the doctor and take medicine, and the best thing for these patients is cold compresses. It is very good for them to apply cold compresses to their eyes five times a day.”

Dr. Zahir Gul Zadran, head of the Noor Specialization Hospital, without providing statistics on the number of people suffering from eye inflammation in this hospital said that there are many cases of people suffering from eye inflammation caused by bacteria.”

He said: “In my private clinic, I have seen 20 patients with bacterial conjunctivitis in four days”

Due to the cold weather and the use of winter equipment, some families may use their blankets without washing, ironing and sunning them, and through that, germs transferred to the person’s eyes and cause infections.

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