Forms of eye herpes and treatments

Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 3:48 pm Post in Eye Diseases

It is estimated that there are 50,000 new and recurring cases of eye herpes in the US every year, which are caused by the type 1 herpes simplex virus. Active herpes virus in the eye can be contagious through close contact, bringing inflammation and scarring of the cornea.

There are other symptoms of eye herpes, such as irritation, sudden and severe ocular pain, cloudy cornea and blurry vision. Ocular herpes is easy to diagnose since it has various characteristics including eye swelling, tearing, foreign body sensation, red eye, watery discharge and light sensitivity.

Ocular herpes has several types with different severities. As a viral corneal infection, herpes keratitis only affects the top layer of the cornea. It will disappear on its own. Stromal keratitis involves the deeper layer of the cornea. This rare condition is caused by a late immune response to the original infection. Stromal keratitis can lead to severe conditions such as scarring, vision loss or blindness. Iridocyclitis brings light sensitivity, blurry vision and pain. This type of eye herpes always inflames the iris and surrounding tissues.

Through mouth and nose, the herpes simplex virus enters the body and travels into nerves. Some factors are estimated to trigger inactive virus, resulting in contagious eye herpes. Those reasons include fever, sunburn, major dental procedures and trauma. Initial outbreak of eye herpes brings a 40-50 percent of recurrence without specific time frame. The recurring period varies from several weeks to even several years. Active eye herpes is high contagious. It can spread from one eye to the other and among individuals.

As mentioned before, different types of eye herpes cause infections that affect different eye parts such as corneal epithelium, corneal stroma, iris retina etc.

Antiviral eye drops and ointments are enough to treat superficial corneal infections. With a cotton swab, your doctor will remove the infected corneal epithelial cells, which is named debridement.

If eye herpes has caused infections in deeper corneal layers, steroid drops are commonly applied. Steroid drops can decrease inflammation and prevent corneal scarring. Unfortunately, these drops are suspected to harm the eye’s immune system and cause recurrent eye herpes in susceptible patients.

For more severe eye herpes that causes scarring in the cornea, steroid is incompetent. A corneal transplant can restore vision caused by permanent corneal scarring.