The Prevalence of Viral Conjunctivitis in Patients Who Referred to Eye Specialist Hospitals in Tehran, Iran

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of herpes simplex virus 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2), Varicella-Zoster virus and Adenovirus associated with conjunctivitis in swab samples of patients who referred to Eye Specialist Hospitals in Tehran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, swab samples from patients with acute conjunctivitis during the first sixth months of 2012, in two ophthalmic departments of Tehran were collected. After DNA extraction, multiplex Real-Time PCR was carried out in two separate reactions for each sample. Results: A total of 150 swap samples were collected from acute conjunctivitis patients. Among them, 22 (14.6%) and 5 (3.3%) were positive for Adenovirus and HSV-1 DNA, respectively. There were no patients with positive results for HSV-2, VZV. Statistical analysis showed insignificant P-value (0.845) between gender and conjunctivitis; however, there was close correlation (P-value 0.05) with age. Moreover, 63.6% of Adenoviral conjunctivitis occurs in the summer compared to spring (36.4), whereas no significant seasonal variation was observed for HSV-1. Conclusion: This prevalence pattern indicates that adenovirus has major role in viral conjunctivitis rather than HSV-1. Further research is needed to identify other viral pathogens associated with ocular infection.