The Ministry of Health has been overly vigilant over the past few weeks since early September as an outbreak of conjunctivitis or Pink Eye has overtaken the country. Latest figures from the ministry suggests that we are now at over 5 thousand persons who are affected by the infection.
As of Tuesday October 3 there were as many as 5,434 persons infected with pink eye. In Corozal at that time there were 1,327 persons affected; in the Belize district it stood at 2,525 while in Cayo the number was at 814; in Stann Creek it stood at 292 and the Toledo district reported 94. The most chronic areas of infection is the central region of the country with at least 100 persons coming in to health centers daily.
Best advice by healthcare personnel to prevent infection is to avoid contact with persons with the ailment. If it does take place that you wash or sanitize your hands frequently. The strain of conjunctivitis being reported is a viral one which suggests that medication is not necessarily as effective and the advice here is to keep the eye lubricated as much as possible when infected and allow the pink eye to run its course which is anywhere from 5 to 9 days.
The ministry of health reports that this bout of infections is expected to plateau within the next week or two after which it will see a downward trend.
