What is Pink Eye

Laura D. Cook, M.D., discusses pink eye and how to recognize and treat pink eye

Dr. Laura D. Cook: Hi! I am Dr. Laura D. Cook. I am an ophthalmologist at the University of Virginia. I am an assistant professor here. Today we'll be talking about several common eye conditions, how to prevent them and treat them. I'll be talking about pinkeye, cataracts and sun protection. Before we get started, I'd like to tell you a little bit about myself. I went to the University of Virginia Medical School. So I did my medical training here and in addition, did my residency in ophthalmology here as well. Right now, I am supervising the general opthalmology service in the department of opthalmology where we see hundreds of patients a day. Patients of all ages of all different types of eye conditions. Now that you know a little bit about me, let's go ahead and start our discussion about eyes. Host: What is pinkeye? Dr. Laura D. Cook: Pinkeye is an infection or inflammation that effects the conjunctiva of the eye and causes redness, irritation or discharge. There are generally four different causes. First, there is the viral cause or a viral infection. It's mostly the cold viruses that will cause colds during the winter time, spring time. Most often, it can be associated with conjunctivitis. There is bacterial cause or bacterial infection. Again, many bacteria can cause that. There is an allergic cause. Allergy is like seasonal allergies or which are usually spring time or yearly year around allergies, mold things like that and then lastly, toxic chemical exposures, even preservatives in eye drops can cause a toxic response or toxic exposures to cleaning supplies etcetera, things of that nature.