Health
Ask a doc: ‘Why are my eyes often bloodshot?’
Bloodshot eyes are often associated with late nights followed by early morning obligations.
While this is indeed one cause of irritated eyes, other factors can contribute to the condition.
To get a clear understanding of the triggers and treatments for bloodshot eyes, Fox News Digital consulted with two ophthalmologists, who provided eye-opening insights.
What causes bloodshot eyes?
When the eyes get irritated, the tiny blood vessels on the white surface of the eye (the sclera) swell, said Usiwoma Abugo, M.D., an ophthalmologist at Katzen Eye Group in Lutherville, Maryland.
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When this happens, the white of the eye appears pink or red, she noted.
There are many potential causes of red or bloodshot eyes.
When the eyes get irritated, the tiny blood vessels on the white surface of the eye swell, which makes it appear pink or red. (iStock)
“They can be a response to an irritant such as pollen, pets, dust or smoke, or a symptom of a medical condition, such as a bacterial infection, virus or injury to the cornea,” Abugo told Fox News Digital.
Here’s some more information on some of the primary culprits.
Allergies
When an allergen gets into the eye, the eye responds by producing a substance called histamine, Abugo said.
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This causes the blood vessels on the surface of the eye to get leaky and swollen, which creates redness and swollen, itchy tissues.
Dry eyes
“Dry eye is an incredibly common eye condition,” Abugo told Fox News Digital.
“When the eye doesn’t have enough tears to stay lubricated, the eye becomes red, and the horizontal blood vessels on the surface of the eye become more prominent, swollen and irritated.”
Tiredness
There’s a reason an overnight flight is called the “red-eye” — bloodshot eyes are often caused by being tired, which is usually related to dry eye, the doctor said.
Allergies are a common cause of bloodshot eyes, according to experts. (iStock)
“When you are tired, your body’s natural tearing or lubrication system becomes abnormal, leading to dry eye,” she noted.
Contact lenses
Poor contact lens hygiene or poorly fitted lenses can irritate the eye and lead to redness.
Not cleaning or caring for your lenses correctly could even lead to a serious eye infection, Abugo warned.
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“Make sure to care for your lenses as recommended by your eye care team, remove them as prescribed, and only wear lenses prescribed for you by a professional,” she advised.
Eye infections
Conjunctivitis, commonly known as pink eye, can be caused by bacteria or a virus.
The condition causes the surface of the eye to swell, which gives the eye a pink or red color, said Abugo.
Relieving and preventing bloodshot eyes
Michelle Andreoli, M.D., an ophthalmologist at Northwestern Medicine in Naperville, Illinois, shared with Fox News Digital some tips for treating red eyes at home.
Over-the-counter artificial tears can be used to address irritation and wash allergens from the eye.
An opthamologist said to avoid decongestant (anti-redness) drops, because “they don’t solve the cause of the problem and can sometimes make redness worse in the long run.” (iStock)
Avoid decongestant (anti-redness) drops, Andreoli advised, because “they don’t solve the cause of the problem and can sometimes make redness worse in the long run.”
Instead, she suggested using over-the-counter antihistamine drops to help with itchy eyes caused by seasonal allergies. (Always check with a doctor first.)
A cool compress can also provide some relief.
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To prevent redness, Anderoli said to avoid smoke, fumes, pollen, dust, chlorine or pet dander if those are known irritants.
Wash your hands often, avoid touching your eyes and wash eyelids daily with a mild cleanser, she recommended.
“If you do have an eye infection, your doctor will prescribe antibiotic eye drops or other medication as deemed appropriate,” the doctor said.
When to see a doctor
Bloodshot eyes are very common and rarely indicate something serious, according to Andreoli.
If symptoms aren’t improving after one week of home remedies, however, she recommends seeing an ophthalmologist for diagnosis and treatment.
Contact lenses can cause redness for some people, especially when they are not cleaned or cared for properly. (iStock)
Some of the more serious conditions associated with bloodshot eyes are ocular inflammation (called uveitis) or an eye infection.
In that case, there are usually additional symptoms, such as pain, discharge and blurred vision.
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“If not treated, eye infections can sometimes cause devastating damage, including vision loss,” Anderoli said.
“Luckily, effective treatments are available to avoid this worst-case scenario.”
If eye redness is accompanied by any degree of vision loss, contact your eye care provider immediately, the doctor advised.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends that all healthy adults get an eye exam by the age of 40 to catch any signs of eye disease.
Added Anderoli, “Lots of eye conditions and diseases can be treated when caught early enough, but often begin without any noticeable symptoms.”
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U.S. health officials are monitoring 16 additional people across the country for symptoms of hantavirus whom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not previously mentioned, the agency said on Thursday.
The new people the C.D.C. reported were not on the cruise ship but were passengers on an April 25 flight to Johannesburg and exposed to someone known to have been infected, said Dr. David Fitter, who is leading the C.D.C.’s response to the outbreak.
The new total of those being monitored in the United States is 41, a significant increase over the 18 passengers from the Dutch cruise ship who were brought back to the United States on Monday. They are quarantining at special facilities in Omaha and Atlanta.
Seven other passengers from the cruise ship had disembarked on April 24 in St. Helena, an island in the Atlantic Ocean, returned to the United States on commercial flights and are being monitored by state health departments.
As of Thursday, there were no confirmed cases in the United States, Dr. Fitter said.
The infected passenger was a 69-year-old Dutch woman whose husband was the first person to die in the outbreak, on April 11. She was among those who disembarked from the ship on April 24. The next day, she flew from St. Helena to Johannesburg. She collapsed shortly after arrival and died on April 26. She was confirmed on May 4 to have had hantavirus.
C.D.C. officials would not give any other information about the 16 passengers, including where they had gone once they reached the United States.
It was not clear whether all Americans exposed to the virus are now back in the country, or whether there are additional people being monitored abroad.
“Our job is to ensure that we are monitoring and in contact with anybody that might have been on the flight this person had taken,” Dr. Fitter told reporters. The agency is “monitoring all Americans that potentially would have been exposed, whether in the U.S. or abroad, and we have been in contact with them,” he said.
In an interview on Sunday with CNN, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the C.D.C.’s acting director, said none of the seven passengers who returned to the United States earlier had symptoms at the time of their travel, so officials had not seen a need to alert the public or trace contacts.
For the moment, quarantine is essentially voluntary. Officials are encouraging those who were exposed to the virus to “stay at home and avoid being around people during their 42-day monitoring period,” Dr. Fitter said.
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Concerns about rising hantavirus cases has Americans reflecting on the coronavirus pandemic.
Although COVID-19 began with a foreign strain and spread rapidly around the world, experts say it’s not likely that hantavirus will behave the same way.
The rare Andes virus, which was linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, is the only known hantavirus strain that has the capability to spread from person to person, usually through prolonged close contact.
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Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel spoke with Fox News Digital about the similarities and differences between hantavirus and coronavirus, noting that there is “no comparison.”
“You could say the comparison ends at that they’re both single-stranded RNA viruses,” he said. “That’s a comparison, but [hantavirus] has been unchanged basically for decades.”
Dr. Marc Siegel says there’s “no comparison between these two viruses, other than that the single-stranded RNA viruses are both carried by animals.” (iStock)
Coronavirus was different because it began to mutate, which started to cause “all kinds of problems,” Siegel noted.
“We don’t know why it started to mutate, but this one doesn’t appear to have done that,” he said. “And every day that goes by seems to show that theory is correct – the genetics of it is the same.”
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“So, there’s no comparison between these two viruses, other than that the single-stranded RNA viruses are both carried by animals.”
Siegel added that COVID is an airborne virus, while hantavirus is mainly a secretion-borne virus, although it can be transmitted through dust and droppings in the air.
The rare Andes virus, which was linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, is the only known hantavirus strain that has the capability to spread from person to person, usually through prolonged close contact. (Andres Gutierrez/Anadolu)
“It’s not airborne … in terms of respiratory droplets hanging in the air,” he said. “It’s very difficult to transmit.”
While coronavirus “moved in the direction of humans in a significant way,” hantavirus has not, except for “very rare” human-to-human transmission, according to the doctor.
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There have been hantavirus cases in the U.S. for decades, although they are “very rare,” Siegel noted.
Certain factors of this disease spread are changing, including warming temperatures that are causing rodents to migrate north toward Buenos Aires, according to the doctor.
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The current outbreak stemming from the cruise ship did not help the cause, Siegel went on — but this spread doesn’t suggest that the virus has changed. Rather, it shows how close quarters on a ship are “very conducive” to spread, he said.
Passengers disembark from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, on May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)
“Every day that goes by shows that … we’re not seeing a second generation of spread,” he reiterated.
The better comparison to make is between hantavirus and bird flu, which is a predominantly animal-based virus that “occasionally infects humans,” Siegel said.
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“There are billions of birds, and every year we talk about how it’s going to cause a pandemic, but it would have to mutate significantly,” he pointed out. “I feel that [hantavirus] would have to mutate significantly before it could go human to human in any significant way, because this is basically an animal virus … it’s very comfortable inside a rodent host.”
Siegel went on, “If you get this virus, you’re in trouble, but getting this virus is very difficult.”
A person visits a COVID testing site on a Manhattan street in New York City on Jan. 21, 2022. “Coronaviruses are airborne … this is not,” Dr. Siegel said. “And coronaviruses mutate a lot, and this does not.” (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Regarding fears that another global pandemic may be looming, Siegel said that just because one virus becomes widespread does not mean all viruses will.
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“Coronaviruses are airborne anyway. This is not. And coronaviruses mutate a lot, and this does not,” he said. “I’m much more concerned about flu than this. Flu can mutate all the time, and it’s already going human to human all over the place, and it’s airborne.”
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“Most infectious disease specialists are much more worried about flu than this, as deadly as this can be,” he added.
“We’re talking apples and oranges, and any comparison you make after that provokes fear.”
Fox News Digital’s Melissa Rudy contributed to this report.
One morning just before Christmas, Michelle stood in a Thrifty-Wash, watching her seven loads of laundry tumble and spin. The machine at the Airbnb had broken and flooded the place. It had been a blessing, in a way — Michelle needed this time alone to think.
The night before, Los Angeles Unified School District officials had hosted a Zoom webinar for parents, in which they had promised to present all the evidence that campus was safe. Michelle had gone in with high hopes, maybe even optimism. Afterward, she called it “the Zoom from hell.”
The officials had opened the meeting by announcing that Pali High’s students would go back to campus at the end of January. Michelle had peered at the screen, squinting to make sense of their color-coded maps, charts and checklists as district officials and their third-party contractors used wonky terms to describe what sounded to Michelle like rudimentary decontamination methods: “visual inspections,” “glove tests,” “subjective evaluations for smoke odor” and the copious use of wet wipes.
The “Environmental Concerns” WhatsApp group began pinging with live commentary. “It’s like they’re all hanging out with my insurance company,” one mother typed. “Transparency my a$$,” wrote another.
During the question-and-answer portion, parents flooded the submission box: Why weren’t the porous ceiling tiles removed? (“We did our best to remove any surface contaminants that we could see visually,” one contractor replied.) Did they realize that lithium had been detected in smoke-damaged homes near the school? (“Lithium, we determined, was not going to be a high-priority metal for us,” another contractor explained.) And why hadn’t they tested for benzene, carbon tetrachloride or perchloroethylene — some of which had been found in other Palisades buildings after the fires?
Michelle had a hunch she knew the answer, but she assumed no official would ever admit it. Then the project manager for one of the contractors came on the screen.
“There are hundreds — literally — of different compounds that could be produced during a fire,” he said, “and there are analytical methods that can be very, very precise in sampling for those.” But the problem, he said, was that it “lacks specificity in what we can actually deal with … ”
Michelle had shaken her head in disbelief. The project manager interrupted himself. “That was the wrong way to put that,” he muttered.
This morning, Michelle had waked to some parents on the “Environmental Concerns” chat talking about putting their kids in virtual learning. Others were hoping to transfer. Michelle was fantasizing about protesting the return to campus, even dreaming up the picket signs: “Lead should only be in pencils,” or maybe, “Test on the school, not on the kids.”
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