Research on Long COVID Dry Eye Disease

Some COVID-19 patients develop various and persistent symptoms weeks and months after completely recovering from the infection. Investigators from the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences of The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s (CUHK) Faculty of Medicine (CU Medicine) have found that one in five post-COVID-19 patients have at least one recent-onset symptom related to dry eye disease (DED) such as blurred vision, itching, pain, or burning. In addition, the study showed that the risk of DED is linked to the severity of COVID infection. The findings have recently been published in the international journal Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology (the official journal of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists).

The studies show that COVID-19 patients with a higher viral load (i.e. low Ct value) when they are admitted to the hospital, they may have a higher risk of suffering from dry eye after recovery.  COVID-19 patients who have received any form of supplementary oxygen during hospitalisation, they are more likely to have dry eye symptoms after recovery.  It is necessary for the medical sector to conduct further research to find out more about the factors and mechanism leading to the development of dry eye symptoms in recovered COVD-19 patients.

In 2020, the dry eye related research projects of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong have been supported by the Health and Medical Research Fund and Chinese Medicine Development Fund.  These research projects are conducted in the CUHK Medical Centre, Eye Centre.