Volney Barrett – Freelance Writer<\/p>\n
Cases of Acute Conjunctivitis, better known as \u2018Pink Eye\u2019, are on the rise in the parish of St. James. The Western Mirror has been receiving a number of reports of persons contracting the highly contagious infection in recent days.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n Our newsroom contacted Dr. Marcia Johnson-Campbell, Medical Officer for Health, St. James, who confirmed that there has been an increase in the condition, which is quite common at this time of the year. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are having a significant increase in the number of cases of Acute Conjunctivitis in the parish of St. James,\u201d informed Dr. Johnson Campbell.<\/span><\/p>\n Conjunctivitis is an infection to the eyes caused mainly by a virus which enters the eye by contaminated hands, wash rags, cosmetics, handkerchiefs and other personal items.<\/span><\/p>\n Signs and symptoms of conjunctivitis include:<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>redness of the eyes, scratchy and or burning eyes, grainy feeling in the eyes, sensitivity to light and watery eyes. <\/span><\/p>\n TREATMENT AND CARE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Infected individuals are being advised to wash their hands each time they touch or scratch their eyes and each time they use tissue or cotton. <\/span><\/p>\n They are also being urged to pour boiled water that has been cooled onto a clean piece of tissue or cotton to wipe the eyes at least three times daily.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThese are also being recommended: Throw cotton or tissue in the garbage after each use. Avoid rubbing the eyes; change pillow cases every night,\u201d Dr. Johnson Campbell advised. <\/span><\/p>\n Persons who have been infected with conjunctivitis are also being urged not to attend school, work or other crowded places until the infection clears up.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTake infants with \u2018pink eye\u2019 to the doctor or nearest health centre as soon as possible,\u201d she further advised.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n PREVENTION<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n In the meantime, the public is being encouraged not to share makeup, eye drops, wash rags, towels or pillow cases. Avoid shaking the hands of persons who have \u2018pink eye\u2019 and to wash their hands often, especially after attending to infected persons.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n In addition, Dr. Johnson-Campbell has warned of a message with counterfeit information about \u2018pink eye\u2019 making the rounds on social media. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere is a WhatsApp message circulating about a different strain… but that is not true and there is no Dr. Sujay Gore on the Medical Council of Jamaica\u2019s current list of registered doctors,\u201d Dr. Johnson Campbell warned<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Volney Barrett – Freelance Writer Cases of Acute Conjunctivitis, better known as \u2018Pink Eye\u2019, are on the rise in the parish of St. James. The Western Mirror has been receiving a number of reports of persons contracting the highly contagious infection in recent days. Our newsroom contacted Dr. Marcia Johnson-Campbell, Medical Officer for Health, St. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":438,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions\/438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}