Posted by: Northwest Eye in News on April 24, 2015
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. – One look at Twitter #costaseye and you see a lot of people talking about this. For the first time since NBC took over the Olympics in 1998, Bob Costas will miss a prime time broadcast Tuesday night.
It’s all because of an eye infection that’s now spread to both of his eyes.
His eyes now have their very own Twitter accounts and people are posting pics of his eyes and tweets about how painful it is to watch.
While we don’t know what led to Costas’ sore peepers, Dr. Timothy Ehlen with Northwest Eye Clinic says eye infections are either caused by bacterial or viral conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye.
Ehlen said viral is the most common and contagious. “You can get it from touching things to being close to people from a mild cold that converts to conjunctivitis.”
And while bacterial conjunctivitis can be treated with antibiotics and generally goes away within a couple days, Ehlen said there’s no medication to treat viral.
“Sometimes we can use certain drops to kind of control the symptoms but the virus itself takes anywhere from a week to 14 days to clear and that’s per eye,” he said.
So how many days will Costas need for his eyes to clear? That’s unclear.
But he made fun of his situation while downing some vodka with Mary Carillo at the end of his NBC broadcast Monday night and said, “I’m looking at it this way. My eyes can’t get any redder.”
Matt Lauer will fill in during the evening broadcast as Costas gives his eyes a rest.
Costas isn’t the only one with sore eyes.
KARE 11’s own Bea Chang is in Sochi covering the Olympics. You may have read her blog. She posted a picture of herself holding a warm compress over her eye a few days ago. She has a blocked tear duct.
She has antibiotics and says her eye is painful, but she’s still working.
Taken from: Kare11.com
