Pink eye becomes painless clouded vsion?!

Pink eye becomes painless clouded vsion?

bf doesn't have an account so i'm posting his Q for him:


"i get frequent eye infections.. so those are nothing new. i had typical pink eye, but now most of the pain is gone, the eye is just really red still and it gets watery, and now i have clouded vision in that eye.
whats going on?"

2 weeks ago
no swimming, maybe mild allergies. its was painful pink on friday andsaturday less pain, more cloudy. today very little pain, still the same cloudy.

he has very bad vision, so we're a little worried.

Pink Eye is a condition caused by an adenovirus. There are a number of adenoviruses (adeno means gland, so the glandular cells are infected. They're the ones that make baseline tears, mucous and other substances for the tears). These infections are usually self limiting, and go away after a few weeks. Sometimes they not only involve the conjunctiva (Conjunctivitis), but also affect the cells on the outer cornea called the epithelium.

When this happens, it's called Keratitis (inflammation of the cornea)

This mild keratitis causes very small white lesions on the corneal surface. These little opacifications cause glare, and hazy vision. They also go away by themselves after a short period, but sometimes can last months.

Antibiotics do not help, this is a viral problem. Some antivirals do help, but again, this is a self limiting problem because you own immune system takes care of the infection.

Sometimes an ophthalmologist will use topical steroids to 'heal' these little keratitis lesions, but the problem is that one can become 'dependent' on the steroids. So most don't Rx Steroids for this infection.

It most always goes away on it's own.