Since lockdown, Eye specialists are seeing a drastic increase in the cases of dry eye syndrome
Ophthalmologists are seeing 80 percent rise in the cases of dry eye syndrome since lockdown as the use of laptop and mobile screens had increased during that period. Dr. Ami Shah, an experienced ophthalmologist says,” Previously we were seeing about 20-30 cases in a month but now after lockdown almost every patient complains about it.” Since the classes and work are mostly conducted online which leads to patients using screens for a longer period of time without taking adequate break in between. This is the major contributor to the increasing cases of dry eye syndrome.
At first patients feel dryness and itchiness in the eyes. According to Dr. Ami Shah,” Most common symptoms are watery eye and inflammation in eye itchiness, fatigue and dryness in the eyes, redness or pinky eye and in severe conditions it leads to hazy visions, severe headache, sensitivity to light and even difficulty in reading.” A patient Harvansh Singh Bagga said,” There was a time when I was spending 8-10 hours on daily basis staring on my computer screen for online classes, that is when I realised my eyes were getting red and it started itching and after sometime I also started having severe headaches.” The sales of medicine for dry eye syndrome have also increase drastically. The sales representative Nishant Mehta says,” about 90 percent of people suffer from this syndrome and because of that our sales have increased by 30-35 percent.”
Staying in air conditioned rooms can also cause dryness in eyes as air condition creates artificial dry and cold atmosphere which harms the eyes, wearing contact lenses for a long period of time. Dr. Hitesh Gilder says, “One should avoid being in air conditioned room for longer hours as it is dry and cold which harms our eyes, also one must wear protective glasses when going out as the direct wind flow in the eyes causes evaporation of tears and leads to dryness in the eyes.” Thus in order to avoid having dry eye syndrome, eye specialists suggest we must take a twenty seconds break after watching screen for twenty minutes and look at greenery or at sky or close eyes and take rest.
