COVID-19 and problems of ophthalmology

Abstract

Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large group of RNA viruses that are pathogenic to animals and humans. Until the end of the 20th century, human CoV were known as pathogens of seasonal mild respiratory diseases. In the last 20 years new CoVs caused three outbreaks of severe acute respiratory diseases with a predominant lesion of the lower respiratory tract: SARS-CoV — the causative agent of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002–2003; MERS-CoV that induced Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2012 and SARS-CoV-2 the causative agent of the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), a pandemic of which began in China in late 2019 and is ongoing. The review presents current data on SARS-CoV-2, ways of contagion, transmission routes, detection time in the body, the role of asymptomatic virus carriers in the epidemic process. Advantages and disadvantages of the main laboratory methods of COVID-19 diagnosis are described: polymerase chain reaction (detection of viral RNA) and serological tests (detecting IgG-and IgM-specific antibodies). The data on conjunctivitis, the main currently known ocular symptom of COVID-19, are summarized. The role of the tear and eye discharge as a possible source of infection is discussed, as well as the role of the eye as the entrance gate of the virus with the subsequent development of respiratory infection. The high professional risk of ophthalmologists being infected through close contact with the patient during the examination is outlined. A system of complex protection of ophthalmologists against contagion during examination of patients, proposed in some countries, is presented.