Ophthalmological aspects of covid-19 – literature review and our experience

In recent months we have encountered a pandemic caused by a new highly contagious virus that has evolved into a global healthcare crisis The World Health Organization has named the virus SARS-CoV-2 (SARS-coronavirus-2) and disease caused by it COVID-19 (“coronavirus disease”) The primary route of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is direct person-to-person contact and through droplets It seems that there is a possibility of ocular transmission of the virus by contagious ocular surface and discharges Close contact between ophthalmologists and patients is unavoidable during clinical examination and this may pose a risk for infection transmission Although conjunctivitis is not a common sign of COVID-19, there are reports about possible ocular manifestations of the disease Therefore, the importance of implementation of preventive measures to control the transmission of infection for ophthalmologists, healthcare professionals and patients during the ophthalmological examination is emphasized We report the latest published data from literature and guidelines for ophthalmologic practice and introduce our experience from Department of Ophthalmology, Clinical Hospital Center Zagreb during SARS-CoV-2 epidemic