McCosh Health Center continues to see a higher number of conjunctivitis cases than normal, Health Services Director Pamela Bowen said. There have been at least 45 cases reported in the last two weeks, bringing total number of cases to 430 since the beginning of February.
Dartmouth University has also had a high number of conjunctivitis during the same period. The Centers for Disease Control determined that the outbreak there was caused by bacteria. The CDC has confirmed that one of the organisms causing infections here at the University is the same as one of the organisms affecting students at Dartmouth, Bowen said.
Stevens Polytechnic Institute, a small college in Hoboken, has started to experience conjunctivitis cases, Bowen said, but the relation to the outbreaks at Princeton and Dartmouth is not yet known.
Bowen sent out a campus-wide e-mail on April 9 to announce that University Health Services would provide every student with a bottle of Care Hand sanitizer, a waterless soap containing an alcohol-based gel. These bottles of hand sanitizer were distributed to all undergraduates via campus mail to encourage students to wash their hands frequently.
Health services is also conducting an online survey of University students with the help of the CDC to investigate the causes of the epidemic, to help determine risk factors and to "develop potential public health prevention measures," according to an e-mail from Bowen.
More than 1,000 students have responded thus far, Bowen said.
She added that the health center is compiling information from new patients to help with this investigation and to evaluate the effectiveness of the hand gel.
"Today, we have started handing out a brief questionnaire to patients who come in . . . CDC will look at this," Bowen said.
Conjunctivitis, also called pink eye, is an inflammation of the membrane that covers the white of the eyeball and the inside of the eyelid. It is caused by a bacterial or viral infection.
Health services recommends frequent hand washing to prevent the spread of pink eye.
To lessen the effects of conjunctivitis, students should flush the eyes with water or apply saline solution or prescription antibiotic eye drops.
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