Acute Bacterial Conjunctivitis in Pediatric Clinic: Causes and Management

Bacterial conjunctivitis is one of the most common eye infections, accounting for 70%–80% of all cases of infectious conjunctivitis in children. The objective of this study was to determine the bacteriological causative agents of acute bacterial conjunctivitis and its management in the pediatric clinic. A cross-sectional descriptive hospital-based study was conducted in pediatric clinic at Ain Al-Khaleej Hospital, in Al-Ain City, Abu-Dhabi, UAE. It included 96 children who were diagnosed as acute conjunctivitis between December 2015 and July 2016 out of 2560 patients seen in the clinic same period. The age of the patients ranged from 0 day to 15 years. All patients had conjunctival swab obtained for culture and sensitivity. 2560 patients were seen during the study period; 96 (3.75%) had acute conjunctivitis. 56 were found to have positive bacterial cultures (58.33%) and 40 patients were found to have negative cultures (41.6%). The most common organism isolated was Haemophilus influenzae 27 patients (48.2%). Other organisms included; staphylococcus Epidermidis 15 patients (26.7%), staphylococcus aureus 6 patients (10.7%), streptococcus pneumoniae 5 patients (8.9%) and others 3 patients (5.3%). Most patients treated with combination of fucidin ophthalmic drops and Gentamycin eye ointment or ciprofloxacin eye drops and gentamycin eye ointment with excellent results. This publication shows that there are no standardized guidelines when it comes to this disease and that there are newer treatment options that may help make this condition of shorter duration, reducing the infectivity and lessen the burden for the patient and family.