The following symptoms and complaints may indicate keratoconjunctivitis epidemica:
Leading symptoms
- Sudden redness of the eye with annular conjunctival swelling.
- Foreign body sensation (onset: unilateral, originating nasally and progressive).
- Epiphora (“trickling of tears”; lacrimation).
- Itching
- Photophobia (photophobia)
- Visual acuity reduction (visual acuity reduction)
- Preauricular (in front of the auricle) lymphadenopathy (lymph node enlargement).
The second, initially unaffected eye has similar, although milder, symptoms after a few days.
Usually, the keratoconjunctivitis epidemica heals without consequences after two to four weeks. It leaves a serotype-specific immunity.
Associated symptoms
- General feeling of illness
- Pain in the limbs
- Fever and exhaustion (in infants and young children).
Other indications
- When ill with adenovirus serogroups 3, 7, 14, pharyngoconjunctival fever (pharyngoconjunctival fever) is caused. In this clinical picture, keratoconjunctivitis is present. In addition, general signs of infection occur and pharyngitis (pharyngitis) is present.
- Serotypes 1 to 5, 7, 14 and 21 lead to respiratory infections such as pneumonia (pneumonia), tonsillitis (tonsillitis) and pharyngitis.
- Serotypes 1, 2, 5, 31, 40 and 41 are more likely to cause gastroenteritis (gastrointestinal flu).
