What Are the Causes of Pink Eye Conjunctivitis?

Pink eye conjunctivitis is a type of eye infection. Because it is contagious, it is common for pink eye to spread through schools, particularly with younger children.

Causes

• The most common cause of pink eye conjunctivitis is a virus or bacteria. In some cases, pink eye is caused by allergies, but this form of the condition is more rare and is not contagious.

Features

• Once a virus or bacterium enters your eye, it causes inflammation in the membrane that lines your eyelid and eyeball. This results in the redness, itching, discharge and gritty feeling that accompanies pink eye.

Methods of Spread

• Conjunctivitis is spread through the air or through contact, for example when you touch an item (such as a towel, pillow or tissue) used by an infected person, or when you touch the hand of someone with pink eye who has the infection on the hand. Once you touch your own eye, you introduce the virus or bacteria and are at risk for developing the infection.

Risks

• If someone in your household develops pink eye, you are at increased risk of becoming infected. In addition, people who wear contact lenses are more likely than others to develop pink eye because they touch their eyes so frequently, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Time Frame

• Pink eye is contagious for 7 to 14 days after the first symptoms of the infection appear, the Mayo Clinic reports.