Quarantine restrictions in the Philippines are easing up but there are still many who choose to stay home and for good reason. They postpone scheduled medical checkups and just refill maintenance medication prescriptions. Some patients with injuries or have health concerns don’t go to their doctors. Instead they self-medicate. This is where some cases go from bad to worse.

Sore eyes (conjunctivitis) can either be bacterial or viral or sometimes caused by allergies. Most can resolve spontaneously even without any treatment. Unfortunately, patients can take things into their own hands and worsen the situation.

Some patients with eye redness self-medicate by either asking from friends and family what eyedrop they can use. Some even borrow other people's eye drops. This practice should be stopped. Medicines prescribed for someone else might not be what you need. Also, eye drops that have been opened and stored for longer than a month could already be contaminated. Using these can give you another bacterial infection instead of improving your condition.

During ophthalmology training and even in practice I’ve dealt with patients who instilled breast milk into their eyes to “cure” sore eyes. Sometimes they ask for breast milk from neighbors for their eye infection. While true that breast milk has defense mechanisms against infections such as antibodies (immunoglobulins) and other germ-busting cells, it is meant to be taken orally by babies and not used as eye drops.

Another bodily fluid that people think cures sore eyes is urine. This is incredibly unsanitary and does not work. It may even cause more harm. We had a young patient at the clinic with a mass in the eye. It started as redness less than a week before the lump grew. The boy recounted that urine was placed in his eye. When we prodded further, he disclosed that the urine was from his uncle. Lab testing of the mass in the eye showed it was caused by gonorrhea. Gonorrhea is not a normal bacteria in the body and is sexually transmitted. Unfortunately, the boy may have been a victim of sexual abuse.

If you have any eye concern that doesn’t improve on its own, don’t self-medicate. Seek out an ophthalmologist. You only have two eyes. Treat them well.