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Global Ophthalmology
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Sore eyes as the most significant ocular symptom experienced by people with COVID-19: a comparison between pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19 states
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  • Published on: 30 August 2021
    Response to editor - 'Sore eyes as the most significant ocular symptom experienced by people with COVID-19: a comparison between pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19 states

    Dear Editor
    We respond to the comments by Solomon regarding our manuscript entitled “Sore eyes as the most significant ocular symptom experienced by people with COVID-19: a comparison between pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19 states” http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000632 as follows:
    1. The assertion that CVS causes sore eyes is true. However, as the author suggests, CVS syndrome causes other eye symptoms including photophobia, tearing, itching eye and red eye. Our study examined these symptoms too and compared pre-COVID states to during-COVID states. Apart from sore eyes – no significant differences were shown in our study. In fact, the reported prevalence of dry eye which is the most commonly reported symptom of CVS as people ‘forget’ to blink, actually reduced during COVID state. In addition, participants reported the duration of the eye symptoms - usually between 1-3 weeks - which tallied with the experience of other COVID-19 symptoms such as dry cough and fever. Therefore it is not likely that the sore eyes symptoms were caused by CVS.
    2. Regarding the transmission – it may be possible that virus spreads from the oropharynx through the lacrimal canal to the conjunctiva (as mentioned by the author of the letter as a personal opinion [1]) - or it may indeed be from the conjunctival into the nasal meatus as shown for SARS virus [2]. Unless more evidence is available it is not possible t...

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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.
  • Published on: 30 August 2021
    Sore eyes - the story behind ?!

    Sore eyes is a symptom which can be found in a large population with no COVID-19 involvement. It is a very common symptom in a large population starting from early child age to older age above 60 years. The modern life, which force people to use virtual screens in their every day work , and the exposure to the mobilescreen, in an epidemic form, are the cause of sore eyes and photophobia too. A new eye disease appeared ,in our modern world , about three decades ago. The disease is called Computer Visual Syndrome (CVS). It is presented by sore eye,photophobia,tearing, itchinh, red eye . It is the result of diminish of blinking during screen work and creating dry eye condition. The population presented in this article included young to old age people. Many people may have already CVS with no sore eye at the begining.When examining them , the conjunctiva is red and smoothness is lost. We may hypotise that many people included in the presented study did have already CVS whic was agravated by COVID-19.
    Regarding the transmition of COVID-19 through conjunctiva. We must take in consideration that the tight connection of the conjunctiva to the oropharinx space through the lacrimal canal might be a source of infection of the conjunctiva from that site. The first days, the persons who are already contaminated by COVID-19 are with no symptoms. The virus may spread from the oropharinx through the lacrimal canal to the conjunctiva and starts the conjunctival reaction.
    ...

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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.