Here are some tips we share with our patients

 

1. Practice effective hand disinfection techniques. Teach your child about hand wash and hand hygiene. It is good and fun to ask your child to demonstrate hand washing technique they learnt at school. It is fun for them to know what was taught can be applied at home. Wash your hands often with soap and warm water. Wash them especially well before and after cleaning, or applying eye drops or ointment to your infected eye.

2. Buy a hand sanitizer and make sure your child sanitize their hand after touching their face or eyes. This also help to prevent cross contamination of common apparatus like the doorknob, fridge handle or a remote control. Get an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol to clean their hands.

3. Use tissue and not towel to wipe secretion or tears. Discard it immediately. Make sure that the dustbin is always available at their playroom, bedroom, toilet and family area. Do not use the same tissue for both eyes if one of the eye is infected.
4. Tell your kids to avoid sharing bath towel especially for those who shares the same room / bathroom. Sharing items is a very common way for conjunctivitis to spread. Some of the particular items that people must avoid sharing include cosmetics, towels, washcloths, and any other type of personal item that might have contact with the eye.

5. If your child gets red eye, keep him out of school for a few days till the eye discharge stops and the redness is completely gone. Once one student comes down with red eye, it can easily spread to an entire class.

What if you are the care taker of someone with conjunctivitis

If you are around someone with conjunctivitis, you can reduce your risk of infection by following these steps:

• Wash your hands often with soap and warm water.
• Please use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol to clean your hands.
• Wash your hands after contact with an infected person or items he or she uses; for example, wash your hands after applying eye drops or ointment to an infected person’s eye(s) or after putting their bed linens in the washing machine.
• Avoid touching your eyes with unwashed hands.
• Do not share items used by an infected person; for example, do not share pillows, washcloths, towels, eye drops, eye or face makeup, makeup brushes, contact lenses, contact lens storage cases, or eyeglasses.

Eye mythbuster
“Looking at people with red eye will not transmit the red eye to you,
 but touching them without cleaning your hand will! ”