By Jeanine Poggi
More than 100 cases of pink eye were reported this month, Maureen Houck, the director of the Health and Wellness Center, said.
While this is not an epidemic, Houck said, there was a significant increase in the number of cases.
Conjunctivitis, which is an inflammation and irritation of the outer lining of the eye, can take three forms: bacterial, viral and allergy. The majority of the University cases have been bacterial, Houck said, which can easily be cured with antibiotics.
It is only in rare cases that pink eye can cause serious damage.
“It isn’t fatal,” she said. “It’s just annoying and inconvenient.”
The infection is contagious, and students are encouraged to continuously wash their hands with both soap and water.
“Someone who has pink eye can touch their desk and then you sit down and touch the desk and then touch your eye,” Houck said. “Once one person gets it, it spreads.”
Washing hands is vital in killing germs, and because so many students do it improperly, there are flyers on some bathroom doors in residential halls outlining the correct way to wash your hands.
Houck recommends if you do get pink eye you throw away any eye makeup worn in the last 72 hours. There have been cases where pink eye returned because the bacteria lived on the makeup.
Reusing contacts that were worn prior to the infection can also cause a relapse.
Linens and clothes, especially those taken off over the head, should be washed thoroughly.
It can take anywhere from 28 to 48 hours for conjunctivitis to come out once contracted and treatment lasts 10 days.
Junior Elizabeth Alfano was recently treated for pink eye at the Health and Wellness Center and was given sulfur drops, which cleared the redness and swelling in two days.
She said the nurse reinforced the importance of hand washing with soap and water. However, this may be a problem for some students living in the tower residential halls.
“The nurse asked me if I had soap in my bathroom because she said many of the towers don’t,” Alfano said. “She was disgraced and said they are trying to get something done.”