Redness in Eye

Hi,

I have redness in one eye for about 3 months now. There is no pain and my vision is fine. I did finally see an opthamologist and he did see the redness. He was somewhat unsure of what could be causing this (allergies, chronic conjunctivitus etc). He did put me on erithromycin ointment for 3 weeks with a followup with him in 2 weeks.

My question is, if it was conjuctivitus, wouldn't my family members also have it since it is contagious? Also, is 3 weeks of erithromycin ointment a long time to be on this medication?

Any idea what this might be?


Thanks!

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

3 weeks on erythromycin is not a problem - many patients take it every night for 6 -12 months at a time.  No worries there.  If you had epidemic viral conjuctivitis then family members could have it but that is not what you appear to have.

You could have so many different causes including allergies, acne rosacea, dry eye keratopathy, sjogren's syndrome, blepharitis, meibomitis, thryoid eye disease, medication side effects, environmental factors or allergies, excessive reading or computer work, other conjuctival or corneal disorders and more.  Good Luck.

MJK MD