Conjunctivitis is often cause for much concern for parents, teachers and nursery staff, leading to confusion about whether affected children should be allowed to attend nursery or school.
Official advice from Public Health England is that exclusion of children with conjunctivitis is not
necessary (goo.gl/VfvR57 - see page 7).
Furthermore, the idea that
conjunctivitis should be treated with antibiotic eye drops or ointment flies in
the face of a growing body of opinion in the medical community that this is
unnecessary, on the basis that the vast majority of cases of conjunctivitis
tend to be relatively mild and will resolve spontaneously. To quote from
the NHS Choices website: “Infective conjunctivitis rarely requires any medical
treatment because the infection will normally heal by itself, usually within
one or two weeks. For most people, the condition does not cause any
complications.” (goo.gl/MQSaqH).
The widespread use of antibiotics
has been blamed for the emergence of “superbugs” such as MRSA which are
resistant to most or all antibiotics. There is therefore increasing
pressure on us all not to use antibiotics unless absolutely necessary.
A leaflet from the Department of Health summarises
this argument (goo.gl/QPFN7N).
The danger of a policy which encourages parents to seek the
prescription of antibiotics is that it turns a mild self-limiting illness into
a medical emergency, as parents seek medical attention after they have returned
from work and before their next working day. This in turn places
unnecessary pressure on GPs, out of hours services and urgent care services for a condition
that usually does not require medical intervention at all.
It is therefore important that children with simple conjunctivitis are neither excluded from nursery or school nor their parents encouraged to seek antibiotics.
Local health protection teams are another great source of advice. Find yours at www.gov.uk/health-protection-team.
Post Script
On a related note, Ofsted advise that only written parental consent is required for schools and nurseries to administer over the counter medication. No prescription or documentation from a doctor should be needed. (goo.gl/TOQCZE via Dr +Mark Folman)
Thank you @DrJohnCosgrove for post on conjunctivitis. Just challenged and changed our daughter's nursery policy
— Peter Stephens (@drp_stephens) January 29, 2014
@DrJohnCosgrove Excellent reference. We've been giving our pts reference to this article. Ab and exclusion issues need highlighting.
— PencoedMedicalCentre (@PencoedMedical) January 30, 2014
@DrJohnCosgrove has stimulated discussion here. Looking at unified LHB (CCG), 1'y care and Opticians avoiding mixed messages on this. Thanks
— PencoedMedicalCentre (@PencoedMedical) January 30, 2014
