by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

Well before the controversy over feeding our kids a kind of beef nicknamed “pink slime” in school cafeterias, there was pinkeye. It’s just as gross-looking and even more icky than the new version. Just ask anyone who’s had it.

A reader asked for some posts on common eye problems and their remedies, so guess what I thought of first. And just like some people claim about ground beef and pink slime, there’s the real pinkeye, and there are the impostors.

Pinkeye and its imitators all involve the thin, clear lining of tissue, call the conjunctiva, that covers the white of the eye. They all involve pink eyes too. The color indicates the conjunctiva is inflamed. So what causes this inflammation? Ah, there’s the rub. :-) And I hope to … clear that up—because the remedy depends on the answer.

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