What’s Going Around: Strep throat, flu, allergies, pink eye

WellSpan Pediatric Medicine Physicians across the Midstate are seeing the flu, strep throat, pink eye, seasonal allergies and asthma.

This week, pediatricians at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital are seeing a lot of common colds and seasonal allergies. They are still seeing some lingering respiratory illnesses, including RSV and the flu. They are also seeing a few cases of COVID.

Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Physicians Roseville Pediatrics reports a moderate number of strep cases this week. They’re also seeing a lot of environmental allergies.

They’re diagnosing a lot of pink eye related to allergies and they saw a small increase in the stomach bug. They also treated a couple of tick bites and noticed a drop in flu cases this week.

Dr. Joan Thode offered the following advice about allergic conjunctivitis:

“Allergic conjunctivitis is a reaction to pollen or other allergens in the air. This causes the immune cells to release histamine, which makes the eyes red, itchy, and watery. Itchy eyes are most likely allergic conjunctivitis. There is rarely thick eye drainage, though it is common for the eyes to tear a lot. The appropriate eye drops are antihistamine rather than antibiotic, which can be purchased over the counter or prescribed by your child’s primary physician.

As allergy season is in full swing, it’s important to wash or at least rinse off your child’s hair before bed. Pollen often clings to hair, and a full head of hair offers a huge amount of surface area to carry that pollen to their pillow. This pollen can get rubbed into the child’s eyes as they move their head around in their sleep, causing puffy, red eyes in the morning. If your child suffers from allergies, it’s advised to rinse their hair and change their pillowcase frequently.

Reasons to see the doctor: thick drainage from the eye; pain with eye movement; eyelid swelling; pain with light/light sensitivity; symptoms that worsen over two to three days; eye redness with any recent eye trauma or suspected foreign body in the eye; changes in vision.”

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