A little girl had had red eyes for several weeks. This symptom reflected the presence of latent tuberculosis.
These are sometimes small signs that can reveal the presence of certain potentially fatal diseases. In the United States, an 11-year-old child was admitted to hospital because of a persistent red eye, as reported The Sun. The administration of antibiotics and ophthalmic drops did not provide relief, although the child did not otherwise have any health concerns. This little girl had suffered from this inconvenience for eight weeks.
Thanks to their investigations, the doctors found that it was actually a symptom of latent tuberculosis. “The patient was doing well until 8 weeks prior to the current evaluation, when she noticed mild ocular redness, which was worse in the right eye than the left eye. There was intermittent eyelid swelling but no photophobia, itching, pain, tearing or discharge“, report the doctors. This case was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine on October 18, 2022.
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latent tuberculosis
Six months before this event, the little girl had been diagnosed with tuberculosis but the parents do not remember having administered treatment. His red eye then was a reaction to the fact that his body was fighting the infection.
The disease has not disappeared in France where 4,606 cases were declared in 2020. As Public Health France explains, in the case of latent tuberculosis, the tubercle bacillus can remain in the body in the state of little active rest and not cause disease. “The infected person is not sick, has no symptoms and is not contagious, but somehow harbors the mycobacteria. This infection can last for years or decades“, abstract the ministry of health. In France, tuberculosis and latent tuberculosis infection are notifiable diseases.
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