Conjunctivitis in adenoidal-pharyngeal-conjunctival virus infection; pharyngoconjunctival fever, a newly described entity.

Abstract

Conjunctivitis is an entity often taken lightly by both the physician and the public. Many causative agents are known, and effective therapy is found for most of them. However, cases are still sometimes seen which not only appear resistant to commonly prescribed therapeutic measures but may have the additional danger that they are caused by easily transmissible pathogenic agents, leading to epidemic outbreaks. Such types of conjunctivitis may be responsible for considerable morbidity and loss of time from schools, offices, and factories. Virus agents are notably difficult to isolate and identify, and only a few are known to respond to present antibiotic and chemotherapeutic agents. In recent years references have been made to conjunctivitis appearing in epidemic form with characteristics suggestive of a viral origin but not fitting into classifications of known virus conjunctivitides. Association with swimming pools or dissemination attributed to ophthalmologists' instruments have in the past been