A bacteriological study of acute conjunctivitis

Abstract

A retrospective bacteriological study of 527 cases of acute conjunctivitis was done at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia over a period of two and half years. Of them, 218 were ophthalmia neonatorum and 309 were acute conjunctivitis cases. The age of patients ranged from newborn to 80 years. Pathogenic bacteria were isolated in 76.6% of ophthalmia neonatorum and in 44.5% of acute conjunctivitis patients. Staphylococcus aureus was the predominant bacterial isolate followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis in both diseases. The in-vitro antibiotic sensitivity results justify the conventional usage of chloramphenicol and gentamicin in the treatment of acute conjunctivitis.