**6. Conclusion**

Conjunctivitis can be a very irritating and frustrating condition to suffer from. Not only does it have profound social implications, it can also affect education and finances if social exclusion is required. General practitioners must remain vigilant when diagnosing viral from bacterial conjunctivitis and try to ensure that patient education of the condition is at an optimum level to prevent spread. Special care must also be taken into consideration in neo‐ natal conjunctivitis and conjunctivitis in the immunocompromised.

Although conjunctivitis is mostly a mild condition, GPs must also be aware of other more serious conditions and be able to differentiate mild conditions from more serious underlying and emergency conditions. This is only achieved via being able to create a list of differentials from a thorough patient history, examination and referral to an ophthalmologist if required.

#### **Author details**

Adnaan Haq, Haseebullah Wardak and Narbeh Kraskian

St. George's University of London, UK

#### **References**


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**Author details**

40 Common Eye Infections

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