Allergic Eye Disease

Our body normally responds to disease with an inflammatory response. This is useful and helps with the immune response process. In allergic disease the body incorrectly identifies a harmless entity as a harmful one and part of the inflammatory immune response is triggered.

Allergic eye diseases are often caused when airborne allergens come into contact with the eye, though they can also be caused by shampoos and detergents. They are more common in patients with other atopies, such as asthma, rhinitis, dermatitis and eczema. If you suffer from hayfever, for example, you are twice as likely to suffer from eye symptoms than you are nasal symptoms. Without targeting the eyes directly treatment may not be effective or efficient.

There are several types of allergic eye disease, including acute, contact, seasonal and perennial.

• 20% of allergy sufferers in the UK have a form of ocular allergy
• Seasonal allergic conjunctivitis (SAC) affects 40% of the UK population
• SAC accounts for 25-50% of all ocular allergy cases and is typically cause by pollen
• Perennial allergic conjunctivitis only affects 0.03% of the population.

Treatment varies between the different types and ranges from cold compresses through oral antihistamines, up to eye drops.