Prevalence of viral keratitis in a Covid 19 infected patient- A Hospital based study

Abstract

The coronavirus illness 2019 (COVID-19) is brought on by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Numerous cases of opportunistic infections, such as bacterial, fungal, protozoal, and viral infections during the course of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been documented ocular as well as systemic. Patients with COVID-19 have experienced and been shown to have herpes zoster and herpes simplex virus activation. The focus this present study was to understand the prevalence of viral keratitis and its association keratitis with covid-19 infection. In the present study we have clearly seen a rise in HZO or HSV infection during the rise of covid infection and a decline was also noted as people are either getting heard immunity or vaccinated for covid but it is yet to be established whether this was due to immunocompromised status of a person or due to direct association of covid and herpes infection.