Dr.EPSITA GANTAYAT

Dr. DASH SUCHITRA

Abstract

Infective keratitis is a sight threatening condition and leads to prolonged ocular morbidity in countries like India as majority of its people are socially and economically backward and have to dwell in rural areas and pursue agriculture and other manual work for livelihood. This paper studies the clinical and microbiological profile of infective keratitis in patients attending a tertiary care centre in South Odisha as our referral care centre. Though most of the people in this area are farmers and are vulnerable to ocular trauma, also their poor hygiene predisposes to fungal and bacterial keratitis, yet we found numerous cases of viral keratitis as well. Late presentation of such patients further escalate the problem. Therefore, a comprehensive survey like this is necessary to assess the specific epidemiological characteristic of infective keratitis of a particular region so that an efficient ophthalmic public health programme can be designed for the patients of that region.