Acute Hemorrhagic Conjunctivitis-A Brief Review

Wan-Ling Chen

2008 Vol.24 NO.4

Correspondence Author： Wan-Ling Chen

Abstract：

Acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis (AHC) is a highly contagious eye disease. It is caused mainly by enterovirus 70 (EV70) and coxsackievirus A24 variant (CA24v). Using molecular methods can be helpful in rapid and specific viral strain identification. AHC’s clinical features include: ocular soreness and itching, photophobia, foreign body sensation, and etc. AHC usually spans 2-3 weeks, and there are no drugs or vaccines for its prevention. Since AHC is highly contagious, appropriate infection prevention and control policies are quite important topics in public health. There have been several outbreaks in Taiwan since 1970, and it reappeared in October 2007. Proper disease control strategies enabled this outbreak to end quickly in one month. This review discusses topics in epidemiology and microbiology, laboratory diagnosis, clinical presentation, and prevention methods, with the objective to serve as a helpful reference for AHC control in the future.
Key Words：Acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, Taiwan, Outbreak