Conjunctivitis Treatment Online (Pink Eye) — Bacterial, Viral & Allergic
A red, sticky, gritty eye is one of three things — bacterial, viral or allergic — and only one of them needs antibiotic drops. An EU-registered doctor works out which from a 3-minute questionnaire, usually within 15 minutes, prescribes antibiotic or antihistamine drops when they will help, tells you when they will not, and checks the signs that mean it is not conjunctivitis at all. €34.
- €34, one fixed fee
- Doctor review usually within 15 minutes
- Daily 7am–11pm CET
- 14 EU countries, no appointment
Bacterial: sticky, crusted, spreading to both eyes
Thick yellow discharge and lids glued shut in the morning point to bacteria. Most cases clear on their own within a week; antibiotic drops shorten it by a day or two, and the doctor prescribes them when they will help.
Viral: watery, gritty, often after a cold
The commonest kind, and antibiotics do nothing for it. It lasts one to two weeks and is highly contagious; the doctor sets out the treatment — cool compresses, lubricant drops, how to stop it spreading — and that plan, not a prescription, is what the €34 covers.
What must be seen, not treated online
Pain rather than grittiness, light sensitivity, blurred vision, a red eye in a contact-lens wearer, or one intensely red eye — these can be a serious eye condition and need an eye examination the same day — the €34 is refunded in full.
Conjunctivitis treatment online — key facts
| Who it is for | Adults with a red, sticky, watery or itchy eye and normal vision, no pain and no light sensitivity, who do not wear contact lenses in the affected eye |
|---|---|
| Bacterial conjunctivitis | Antibiotic drops or ointment for five days — the product depends on the country; most cases also clear untreated within seven |
| Viral conjunctivitis | No antibiotics; lubricant drops, cool compresses, strict hand hygiene, separate towels; one to two weeks; contagious while the eye is watering |
| Allergic conjunctivitis | Antihistamine or mast-cell-stabiliser drops — olopatadine, ketotifen, azelastine — plus the nasal treatment if hay fever goes with it |
| Not treated online | Eye pain, light sensitivity, reduced or blurred vision, contact-lens wearers, a single intensely red eye, injury or chemical splash, a newborn, a rash with blisters near the eye, symptoms beyond two weeks |
| Contact lenses | Out until the eye has been normal for 24 hours after treatment ends; a red eye in a lens wearer is keratitis until an eye doctor says otherwise |
| Price and time | €34, one fee; an EU-registered doctor reviews the questionnaire usually within 15 minutes, daily 7am–11pm CET; full refund if it cannot be treated online |
What is the treatment for conjunctivitis?
Conjunctivitis treatment depends on the cause: bacterial conjunctivitis usually clears within a week, and antibiotic drops shorten it by a day or two when the discharge is thick. Viral conjunctivitis needs no antibiotics — lubricant drops, cool compresses and strict hygiene for the one to two weeks it lasts. Allergic conjunctivitis is treated with antihistamine eye drops. Pain, light sensitivity or blurred vision means it is not simple conjunctivitis and needs an eye examination.
How to get conjunctivitis treatment online — what happens after you press start
1. The questionnaire — about 3 minutes
It asks about your symptoms and how long you have had them — itching, burning, grittiness, discharge, crusted or stuck eyelids, the colour of the eye — then about contact lenses, any eye injury, the warning signs the doctor must rule out, other conditions, allergies and the medicines you take.
2. The doctor's review
The doctor reads it and sorts the picture into bacterial, viral or allergic from the discharge, the itch, whether one or both eyes are involved and what came before. Bacterial gets antibiotic drops when they are warranted; allergic gets antihistamine drops; viral gets clear instructions and no antibiotic, because none would help. Pain, light sensitivity, blurred vision, contact-lens wear or one furious red eye means the doctor tells you to be examined the same day — the video consultation can help decide where — and the €34 is refunded.
3. The pharmacy
The prescription appears in your Mobi Doctor profile in English, naming the active ingredient, so a pharmacy you choose in any of the 14 EU countries can dispense the local product. You pay the pharmacy for the drops; Mobi Doctor does not sell or dispense medicines.
Eye pain, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, a contact lens in the red eye, or one eye that is intensely red? Do not use the questionnaire — book a video consultation now, or go to an eye clinic or emergency department today.
Right for the Express Assessment if
- Your eye is red, sticky, watery or itchy, but your vision is normal
- It feels gritty or itchy rather than painful, and light does not hurt
- You do not wear contact lenses, or you have not worn them since it started
- You are 18 or over and in one of the 14 EU countries Mobi Doctor covers
Book a video consultation instead if
- Pain in the eye — not grittiness, pain — or pain when you look at light
- Blurred or reduced vision, or a pupil that looks different from the other
- You wear contact lenses — a red eye in a lens wearer can be a corneal infection that threatens sight
- One eye deeply, intensely red, especially with a headache or nausea
- Blisters or a rash on the eyelid, nose or forehead, or a recent injury or chemical splash
- Symptoms for more than two weeks, heavy pus that worsens by the hour, a recent eye operation, or a newborn baby with a sticky eye
List every medicine you take and answer each question fully — the doctor's decision depends on it. Your answers are confidential.
Prefer to listen? The Mobi Doctor podcast episode on conjunctivitis.
About conjunctivitis: the three kinds, and how to tell them apart
Conjunctivitis is inflammation of the conjunctiva, the thin membrane over the white of the eye and the inside of the lids, and 'pink eye' is simply its everyday name. Bacterial conjunctivitis produces a thick, yellow-green discharge that glues the lashes overnight, usually starts in one eye and spreads to the other within a day or two, and is commonest in children and in adults with a cold. Viral conjunctivitis — most often adenovirus — is watery rather than sticky, gritty rather than itchy, often follows a cold or sore throat, may come with a tender lump in front of the ear, and is the most contagious of the three. Allergic conjunctivitis itches above all, affects both eyes at once, comes with sneezing or a runny nose, and follows pollen, pets or dust rather than contact with someone else's red eye. Vision is normal in all three and there is no real pain — which is exactly what separates conjunctivitis from the conditions that mimic it.
Bacterial conjunctivitis treatment: when antibiotic drops help, and when they do not
Most bacterial conjunctivitis in adults clears by itself within five to seven days, and the trials that compared antibiotic drops with placebo show a modest gain: recovery a day or two sooner and less spread to others, not a cure that would otherwise fail. That is why European practice is a considered decision rather than automatic drops: antibiotics for a clearly bacterial picture — thick discharge, glued lids — that is severe, has lasted several days, or where quick resolution matters, and for people at higher risk; watch-and-wait with lid cleaning for the mild ones. When drops are prescribed, the choice depends on the country — chloramphenicol drops or ointment, fusidic acid gel twice daily, or an aminoglycoside such as tobramycin — used for five days, with the ointment at night if the lids stick; chloramphenicol is avoided with a personal or family history of blood disorders and in pregnancy or breastfeeding, where fusidic acid is preferred. Contact lenses stay out until 24 hours after the last dose. If there is no improvement after three days of drops, the diagnosis is re-examined, not the antibiotic changed.
Viral conjunctivitis treatment: what actually helps
No antibiotic touches a virus, and prescribing one for viral conjunctivitis adds side effects and resistance for nothing — so the doctor will say no, and explain why. What helps: preservative-free lubricant drops several times a day, cool compresses, and not rubbing. What matters more is containment, because adenoviral conjunctivitis passes on hands, towels, pillowcases and door handles for as long as the eye is watering, typically ten to fourteen days. Wash hands after every touch of the face, use a separate towel, do not share make-up, throw away eye make-up used since it began, and stay off contact lenses. It is usually worse in the second week before it settles. Increasing pain, light sensitivity or blurring during a viral conjunctivitis means the cornea has become involved and an eye examination is needed.
Allergic conjunctivitis treatment: drops that stop the itch
For itchy, watery eyes with sneezing, the treatment is a dual-action antihistamine and mast-cell-stabiliser eye drop — olopatadine, ketotifen or azelastine — used twice daily through the exposure, which works within minutes and, kept up, prevents the next attack. Cool compresses and refrigerated lubricant drops help between doses. Because allergic conjunctivitis nearly always travels with allergic rhinitis, the doctor can treat the nose too when the questionnaire describes it — a steroid nasal spray and a non-drowsy antihistamine tablet — or point you to the allergy Express Assessment, which covers that in full. Steroid eye drops are reserved for eye specialists — they raise eye pressure and can cause cataract and infection — and are not prescribed from a questionnaire.
The red eyes that are not conjunctivitis
Four conditions look like pink eye and can cost sight. Keratitis — infection of the cornea — is the risk in anyone who wears contact lenses, especially after sleeping or swimming in them: a red, painful, light-sensitive eye with blurring, which needs an ophthalmologist the same day. Anterior uveitis gives a deep ache, light sensitivity and a small or irregular pupil, usually in one eye. Acute angle-closure glaucoma is a severely painful red eye with headache, nausea and haloes around lights, and is an emergency. Shingles around the eye starts as a rash on one side of the forehead or nose. None of these has the innocent gritty, sticky, vision-is-fine feel of conjunctivitis, and the questionnaire asks the questions that separate them — pain, light, vision, lenses, rash — so the doctor can send you to the right place quickly rather than prescribe drops for the wrong thing.
Using the prescription at a pharmacy anywhere in the EU
The prescription is issued in English by an EU-registered doctor, names the active ingredient rather than a brand, and carries a verification code the pharmacist can check at mobidoctor.eu/verify. A prescription issued in one EU country must be recognised in another (Directive 2011/24/EU); the active-ingredient name is what makes that work at the counter. Dispensing is the pharmacist's decision under the rules of the country you are in, and depends on the medicine being available there. Chloramphenicol and antihistamine eye drops are sold without a prescription at pharmacies in some of the 14 countries and are prescription-only in others; the prescription can be used in all of them, and the pharmacist dispenses the local product where it is available. The other conditions the Express Assessment covers — 13 in all, plus repeat prescriptions — are listed on the online doctor prescription page.
Read the full conjunctivitis guide: symptoms, causes, tests and treatment
Sources: EAACI — position paper on the diagnosis and management of allergic conjunctivitis (Leonardi et al., Allergy) · Berufsverband der Augenärzte Deutschlands / Deutsche Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft — Leitlinie Bindehautentzündung (conjunctivitis guideline)
Start Express Assessment — €34 About 3 minutes to complete.
Dr. Chrysoula I. Liakou MD, PhD
Conjunctivitis treatment online — your questions answered
Medical Build Order
About 3 minutes of questions — then the doctor takes over. No waiting room.