COVID-19 and Refractive Errors: A New Potential Threat for Children and Adolescents

Lorenzo Ferro Desideri,Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone,Fabio Barra

doi:10.29333/ejgm/10870

Lorenzo Ferro Desideri, Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejgm/10870

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Abstract

The current pandemic has changed the social life and learning of most children and adolescents around the world due to public health restrictions. In response to this, they have spent more time on computer and television monitor screens, which should negatively impact their eye health. Thus, here we discuss the possible association between the imposed home confinement and risk of developing ‘quarantine myopia’ in children and adolescents.

Highlights

The current pandemic has changed the social life and learning of most children and adolescents around the world due to public health restrictions
The virus that causes the disease was named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2), and it is characterized by high transmissibility (3-and 10-fold higher than those of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)), which has been proven to be directly related to the sequence of the S protein of the virus [4]
Given this and the increasing number of SARS-CoV-2 infections, the population lifestyle is forcefully subjected to significant modifications, including decreased physical activity levels, irregular sleep habits [8] and, importantly, more time spent on computer and television monitor screens [9]

Summary

Introduction

The current pandemic has changed the social life and learning of most children and adolescents around the world due to public health restrictions. Dear Editor, The present global epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) represents a major threat to public health worldwide [1,2,3]. Governments all over the world have imposed strong public health restrictions, including social distancing, travel prohibitions, and quarantines, in order to decrease the impact of the epidemic on the population as well as on global healthcare systems [5,6,7].

Results

Conclusion