Epidemic Keratoconjunctivitis

Abstract

Between May and September, 1971, 114 cases of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis occurred in industrial workers and their contacts in Alabama. Twenty-nine nonindustrial cases were identified in the community. Infection was maintained and transmitted in a clinic by a contaminated ophthalmic wash solution and by direct conjunctival manipulation by the nursing staff. The risk of infection was significantly higher for eye-clinic patients who had a foreign body removed from their eyes than for those who had none. The mean incubation period was 10 days; the average duration of illness was 20 days. Adenovirus Type 8 was isolated from eye swabs and corneal scrapings from 10 of 22 patients and from one bottle of ophthalmic wash solution. Hemagglutination-inhibition antibody was as specific as serum neutralizing antibody for documenting infection and was simpler to measure. (N Engl J Med 289:1341–1346, 1973)