Severe Photosensitivity after swimming in the Amazon river?!
Question: Severe Photosensitivity after swimming in the Amazon river?
So I am studying microbiology and parasites in school right now, and I've been trying to self diagnosis an eye infection that I had several years back after a trip to the Peruvian Amazon. I am not positive - but I think the most likely cause of the infection was swimming in the river with my contacts in (not very smart, I know). 1-2 days later I had redness, itching, but most memorable was the severe photosensitivity (almost ruined the second half of the trip up to the sunny Andes). The infection continued for the remaining two weeks of the trip, got better for a short period and then returned when I was back in the United States. I switched out my contacts (unfortunately, I did not have prescription glasses with me) after this and otherwise take very good care of my eyes, but as I said the infection continued. After seeing my optometrist I was prescribed steroid drops, which cleared up the infection for good in about 2 weeks. No diagnostic test was really ever done to figure out if there was a particular responsible organism, and at the time I had little interest, so I never pursued an answer further than "Corneitis and perhaps Iritis".
The fact that the anti-inflammatory drops cleared up points away from anything real wild, but part of me kind of is curious if there was something else was going on...mainly just because a pathogenesis of "After swimming in the Amazon, patient developed severe photosensitivity" sounds too cool to be routine.
Other info - it was January and I was taking doxycycline (malaria prophylaxis)
The fact that the anti-inflammatory drops cleared up points away from anything real wild, but part of me kind of is curious if there was something else was going on...mainly just because a pathogenesis of "After swimming in the Amazon, patient developed severe photosensitivity" sounds too cool to be routine.
Other info - it was January and I was taking doxycycline (malaria prophylaxis)
Answers:
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
First of all steroids don't really clear up infections. They effect your immune response and reduce inflammation. They would not have been given to you without an antibiotic if a bacterial infection was suspected. You also would have had some purulent discharge at some point. We sometimes give steroids for viral infections. Not so much to cure it as to make the patient more comfortable while the disease runs it course. A protozoa or fungal infection would be expected to have much more disastrous results.
optometrist