EPIDEMIC KERATOCONJUNCTIVITIS ("SHIPYARD CONJUNCTIVITIS")

Abstract

In 1941 in the San Francisco shipyards there occurred on outbreak of an acute inflammatory disease of the eyes, apparently derived from a similar outbreak in Hawaii,¹ which soon spread throughout the Pacific coast area and which eventually reached the east coast. A complete clinical study of the disease has been reported by Hogan and Crawford,² who called it "epidemic keratoconjunctivitis." A similar type of acute keratoconjunctivitis has been variously described since 1890 under different names in Austria, Germany, India and the Orient. The question remains as yet unanswered whether all the reports have reference to the same disease. Two things can definitely be said about the disease : 1. Its causation is unknown, although evidence points to a nonbacterial agent. 2. It is obviously infectious in nature, although according to Hogan and Crawford it is transmissible only by direct contact to susceptible persons. On the other hand, there