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Dr. Chrysoula I. Liakou MD, PhD
- Treated online: Assessment online. A doctor can recognise the signs of uveitis by video and tell you where to go; diagnosis and treatment are by an eye specialist in person.
- What it is: inflammation inside the eye, most often at the front (iritis), usually in one eye; it affects about 20 to 50 in every 100,000 people each year, and most cases have no clear cause.
- Symptoms: eye pain that can be worse when reading, redness, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, and sometimes floaters.
- Why it is urgent: treated early, there is often no lasting damage; without the right treatment it can lead to glaucoma, cataract and permanent problems with vision.
- Emergency: call 112 or go to an emergency department if you lose vision, or for a painful red eye with sudden blurred vision.
Do not book a video appointment if you have lost vision, or if you have a painful red eye with sudden blurred vision, severe pain, coloured rings around lights or vomiting. Call 112 or go to an emergency department. If you already have uveitis and the symptoms are coming back, contact your eye clinic promptly.
Can an online doctor help with uveitis?
No, uveitis cannot be treated online: it is diagnosed by an eye specialist who examines the inside of the eye with a slit lamp, and it is treated with steroid and dilating eye drops that need close follow-up. What a doctor by video can do is recognise the pattern, tell it apart from conjunctivitis and other red eyes, and tell you how urgently to be seen; after a referral, people are usually seen by an eye specialist within 24 hours. If you already have uveitis, the doctor can help with questions about your drops, a recurrence and linked conditions.
How an online consultation helps with possible uveitis
- Uveitis or conjunctivitis?: Real pain, light sensitivity and blurred vision point inside the eye; grittiness, itch and discharge point to the surface.
- Urgency made clear: Where to go and how quickly, and what to tell the eye clinic when you get there.
- Linked conditions considered: Back pain and stiffness, bowel symptoms, shingles near the eye or a past eye injury can be part of the picture.
- Support between visits: Questions about drops, side effects and the signs that the inflammation is coming back.
What the doctor checks in an online assessment of possible uveitis
The doctor asks about the warning signs first, then about the eye and your health. The doctor asks about:
- Warning signs: loss of vision, severe pain, coloured rings around lights, vomiting, or an injury.
- The pain: an ache in the eye, whether bright light or reading makes it worse, and how fast it came on.
- The redness: one eye or both, and whether it is concentrated around the coloured part of the eye.
- Your vision: blurring, floaters or flashes, checked by covering each eye in turn.
- Contact lenses: a painful red eye in a lens wearer may be keratitis rather than uveitis.
- Your health: earlier uveitis, back pain and stiffness, bowel problems, cold sores or shingles near the eye, and your medicines.
Before the call, take out contact lenses, and sit facing a soft light so the doctor can see the eye without discomfort.
What is uveitis?
Uveitis is inflammation inside the eye, in the uvea, the middle layer that includes the iris, the coloured part. It usually affects one eye but can affect both. It is named after the part of the eye that is inflamed:
Swipe sideways to compare →
| Type | Where | Typical features | Usual length of treatment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anterior uveitis (iritis) | The iris and the front of the eye | The most common type, 50% to 70% of cases; pain, redness and light sensitivity | About 6 to 10 weeks per episode |
| Intermediate uveitis | The clear gel in the middle of the eye | Floaters and blurred vision | Many months, sometimes years |
| Posterior uveitis | The retina, the choroid or the optic nerve | Floaters and blurred or reduced vision | Many months, sometimes years |
| Panuveitis | All parts of the uvea | A mix of the above | Many months, sometimes years |
Uveitis is uncommon. In large US studies, between about 25 and 52 people per 100,000 develop it each year, and it causes about 10% of legal blindness in the United States, which is why it is treated promptly.
What are the symptoms of uveitis?
Usually a painful red eye that is sensitive to light, with blurred vision, coming on over hours to days. The symptoms are:
- eye pain, which may feel worse when you read or focus on something close
- red or watery eyes
- sensitivity to light, with pain in bright light
- reduced or blurred vision
- dark spots or lights at the edge of your vision (floaters and flashes)
- a small or irregular pupil
What does uveitis look like?
The redness is often strongest in a ring around the coloured part of the eye, sometimes with a purplish tinge, rather than spread across the whole white of the eye. The pupil can look small or irregular. There is usually no sticky discharge.
Uveitis or conjunctivitis?
Swipe sideways to compare →
| Uveitis | Conjunctivitis | |
|---|---|---|
| Pain | An ache inside the eye, constant, developing over hours | Gritty, burning or itchy |
| Light | Bright light hurts | Usually comfortable |
| Vision | Blurred | Normal once you blink |
| Redness | Strongest around the coloured part of the eye | Spread across the white of the eye |
| Discharge | Watery, not sticky | Sticky or watery |
| Pupil | Small or irregular | Normal |
| What to do | An urgent eye examination | Usually treated online; see conjunctivitis |
A painful red eye in a contact lens wearer can also be keratitis, and severe pain with coloured rings around lights and vomiting can be acute glaucoma: both need urgent care. The red eye guide covers the other causes.
What causes uveitis, and who gets it?
In most cases no cause is found. When there is one, it is usually the immune system, an infection or an injury:
- Conditions of the immune system: ankylosing spondylitis and other conditions linked to the HLA-B27 gene, sarcoidosis, multiple sclerosis, and inflammation affecting only the eye.
- Infections: herpes simplex, shingles near the eye, toxoplasmosis, syphilis and tuberculosis.
- Injury: about 20% of iritis follows a blunt injury to the eye, and repeated eye operations can trigger it.
- Medicines and other triggers: some glaucoma drops, some cancer immunotherapy, and rarely a reaction to tattoo ink.
What is the main cause of iritis?
Most iritis has no clear cause. The next most common cause is the HLA-B27 gene, found in 40% to 70% of people with anterior uveitis, depending on the region, and more often in men. It is linked to ankylosing spondylitis, a condition that causes back pain and stiffness.
Who gets uveitis?
Mostly young and middle-aged adults, although it can happen at any age, and in one large study it was most common over 65.
Is uveitis contagious?
Uveitis itself is not passed from person to person. It is inflammation inside the eye, usually linked to the immune system or with no clear cause. When an infection such as herpes or toxoplasmosis causes it, that infection is treated.
How is uveitis diagnosed and treated?
An eye specialist examines the inside of the eye with a slit lamp, a microscope with a bright beam, and may arrange blood tests and X-rays to look for a cause. Treatment aims to calm the inflammation, relax the eye and ease the pain, and treat any infection:
- Steroid eye drops: most people respond to them, and they are used exactly as the eye specialist says.
- Dilating eye drops: they stop the pupil sticking to the lens behind it, which reduces scarring, and ease the pain.
- Injections or tablets: for uveitis further back in the eye, or when drops are not enough.
- Medicines that calm the immune system: for severe uveitis or uveitis that keeps coming back; about 10% to 30% of people need treatment beyond steroids.
How long does uveitis last?
Iritis usually needs about 6 to 10 weeks of treatment per episode, and it usually gets better quickly with treatment. Uveitis further back in the eye can need treatment for many months or even years.
Can iritis go away on its own?
Do not wait to find out. Without the right treatment, iritis can cause permanent problems with vision, while treated early there is often no permanent damage.
How do you know uveitis is healing?
The pain and light sensitivity ease, the redness fades and vision clears. Only an eye examination shows that the inflammation inside the eye has settled, so keep your follow-up appointments, and do not stop or change your drops without the eye specialist’s advice.
Can uveitis come back?
Yes. Iritis can come back, and there is not always a cure, but treating each episode quickly controls the inflammation and prevents complications. If you have had it before, you will usually recognise the symptoms early: contact your eye clinic promptly.
Is uveitis serious? Complications
It can be. With prompt treatment the outlook is good, but untreated or repeated inflammation can damage the eye:
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| Complication | Why it happens | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Glaucoma | Raised eye pressure from the inflammation or from steroid treatment | Pressure checks during treatment, and treatment to lower it |
| Cataract | Clouding of the lens after inflammation or steroids | Can be treated with cataract surgery |
| Swelling at the centre of the retina | Fluid builds up at the back of the eye | Blurred central vision that needs treatment |
| A pupil stuck to the lens | Inflammation makes the iris stick | Prevented by dilating drops |
| Loss of vision | Inflammation left untreated | Why uveitis needs prompt treatment |
What might the doctor recommend for possible uveitis?
What happens next depends on your symptoms and whether you have had uveitis before. This is the framework the doctors use:
Swipe sideways to compare →
| What you have | Likely first step | Suitable for online care? | When in-person care is needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| A painful red eye with light sensitivity, for the first time | An urgent eye examination | Yes, to assess | Urgently, usually within 24 hours |
| Known uveitis, and the symptoms are coming back | Contact your eye clinic; an urgent examination | Yes, to assess | Urgently, in person |
| Using steroid eye drops, with questions about them | Advice; any change agreed with your eye specialist | Yes | If pain, redness or blurring returns |
| Repeated iritis with back pain and stiffness | Assessment for ankylosing spondylitis | Partly | For blood tests and a specialist referral |
| A gritty, sticky red eye with normal vision | Assessment for conjunctivitis | Yes | If pain, light sensitivity or blurring start |
| Loss of vision, or severe pain with vomiting | Emergency care | No | Call 112 now |
A painful red eye and not sure what it is? A doctor can tell you in one consultation how urgently to be seen.
See available times →Treatment options for uveitis
What you can do yourself
- Get an urgent eye examination for a painful red eye with light sensitivity or blurred vision.
- Wear sunglasses if light hurts your eyes.
- Use your drops exactly as the eye specialist says, and keep every follow-up appointment.
- Do not use leftover steroid eye drops from an earlier episode without advice.
- Take out contact lenses until the eye specialist says you can wear them again.
Prescription treatment
A prescription is never issued without a consultation. Uveitis is treated by an eye specialist, with steroid and dilating eye drops and sometimes injections, tablets or medicines that calm the immune system, all of which need close follow-up. The doctor does not start steroid eye drops online, but may advise on pain relief and help you get to the right clinic quickly. If the doctor prescribes, use the prescription at a pharmacy near you.
What does not help
Waiting to see whether a painful, light-sensitive red eye settles. Antibiotic drops for conjunctivitis, which do not treat inflammation inside the eye. Stopping steroid drops suddenly or early without advice.
Special situations
Ankylosing spondylitis and back pain
If you have back pain and stiffness and episodes of iritis, tell the doctor: the two are linked through the HLA-B27 gene. The back pain page covers back pain more widely.
Shingles or cold sores near the eye
Herpes viruses, including the one that causes shingles, can cause uveitis. A shingles rash on or near the eye or nose, or shingles with changes to your vision, needs urgent assessment, because it can affect your sight.
Pregnancy
Tell the eye specialist if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, because it affects which medicines are suitable.
Uveitis while travelling in Europe
A painful, light-sensitive red eye needs an eye examination wherever you are; ask for an eye casualty or emergency eye service, and call 112 if you lose vision. If you have uveitis, travel with your drops, your clinic letter and enough supply for the trip.
Children
Mobi Doctor consultations are for adults aged 18 and over. A child who is unwell needs a paediatrician or a local doctor in person, and emergency signs in a child mean 112.
When uveitis is assessed online, and when you need in-person care
Assessed online: a painful red eye that could be uveitis, telling it apart from conjunctivitis, how urgently to be seen, and questions about drops, recurrences and linked conditions.
In-person care: diagnosis with a slit lamp, starting and adjusting steroid and dilating drops, injections and other treatment, pressure checks, and any loss of vision.
When to get in-person care
Call 112 or go to an emergency department now for:
- loss of vision in one or both eyes
- a painful red eye with sudden blurred vision
- severe eye pain with coloured rings around lights, a headache or vomiting
- a red eye after an injury, a chemical or something stuck in the eye
Get medical advice the same day for:
- pain in the eye, especially with sensitivity to light
- changes in your vision, such as flashing or blurring
- very red eyes
- symptoms of uveitis coming back if you have had it before
- a painful red eye with a shingles rash on or near the eye or nose
How Mobi Doctor works
- Book a time that suits you: daily 7am–11pm CEST. You can see a doctor over video, usually within 15 minutes. No subscription, and the exact price is shown before you pay.
- Speak to a licensed doctor about your eye: say when the pain and redness started, whether light hurts and your vision is blurred, and whether you have had uveitis before.
- Leave with a plan: what to do, what to take and for how long, and which signs mean you should be seen in person. If the doctor prescribes, use the prescription at a pharmacy near you.
No sign-up needed
Not sure it’s uveitis? Tick every symptom you have to see each condition page that mentions it. It finds the right page, not a diagnosis: a doctor gives you that on a video call. If you have an emergency sign listed on this page, call 112 instead.
Tap the body — an area or a point — to browse symptoms anywhere
Similar symptoms, different condition? Keratitis can start the same way. Compare them, or look up any other symptom in the full symptom checker.
Frequently asked questions about uveitis
What is uveitis?
Uveitis is inflammation inside the eye, in the middle layer that includes the coloured part. It causes a painful red eye, sensitivity to light and blurred vision, usually in one eye, and needs prompt treatment by an eye specialist.
What is iritis?
Iritis is another name for anterior uveitis, inflammation of the iris at the front of the eye. It is the most common type of uveitis, accounting for 50% to 70% of cases.
What causes uveitis?
In most cases of uveitis no cause is found. Known causes include conditions of the immune system such as ankylosing spondylitis, infections such as herpes, shingles and toxoplasmosis, an eye injury, and some medicines.
What does uveitis pain feel like?
Uveitis pain is an ache inside the eye that can be worse in bright light or when reading or focusing on something close, often with redness around the coloured part of the eye and blurred vision. It usually comes on over hours to days.
Is it uveitis or conjunctivitis?
Uveitis aches deep in the eye, hates bright light, blurs vision, makes the pupil small or irregular and reddens the eye mostly around the coloured part, usually on one side, with no discharge. Conjunctivitis is gritty rather than painful, sticky or watery, affects both eyes within days, leaves vision normal and reddens the whole white of the eye. Acute glaucoma causes severe pain with a cloudy cornea and halos around lights. Pain with light sensitivity means an examination.
Is uveitis serious?
It can be. Treated early, uveitis often leaves no lasting damage, but without the right treatment it can lead to glaucoma, cataract, swelling of the retina and permanent problems with vision.
Is uveitis contagious?
Uveitis itself is not passed from person to person. It is inflammation inside the eye, usually linked to the immune system or with no clear cause. When an infection causes it, that infection is treated.
How is uveitis treated?
Uveitis is treated by an eye specialist, with steroid eye drops to calm the inflammation and dilating drops to ease pain and stop the pupil sticking. Some people need injections, tablets or medicines that calm the immune system.
What can I do at home with uveitis?
Use the steroid and dilating drops exactly as the specialist prescribes, including the tapering schedule, because stopping early lets uveitis flare; wear sunglasses for light sensitivity, rest the eyes from reading and screens while they ache, take paracetamol or ibuprofen for pain, do not wear contact lenses until cleared, keep every follow-up appointment, and go back at once if pain, redness or blurring return. Home care never replaces the drops; untreated uveitis scars the eye.
How long does uveitis last?
Iritis usually needs about 6 to 10 weeks of treatment per episode and usually improves quickly with treatment. Uveitis further back in the eye can need treatment for months or years.
Can iritis go away on its own?
Do not wait to find out. Without the right treatment, iritis can cause permanent problems with vision, so a painful, light-sensitive red eye needs an urgent eye examination.
Can uveitis come back?
Yes. Iritis can come back, and there is not always a cure. Treating each episode quickly controls the inflammation and prevents complications, so contact your eye clinic as soon as the symptoms return.
Can uveitis be prevented?
Most uveitis cannot be prevented, because no cause is found in the majority, but recurrences can be limited: people with ankylosing spondylitis or another HLA-B27 condition should know the symptoms and start treatment at the first ache; good control of the underlying immune condition, often with specialist medicines, reduces flares; treating shingles and herpes early protects the eye; and eye protection prevents injury-related uveitis. Prompt treatment of each episode is what prevents the complications.
Can an online doctor treat uveitis?
No. A doctor by video can recognise the signs, tell uveitis apart from conjunctivitis and tell you how urgently to be seen, but diagnosis and treatment need an eye specialist in person.
- Uveitis, NHS, National Health Service (UK), reviewed 20 March 2024.
- Eyes: uveitis, Better Health Channel, Victoria State Government (Australia), reviewed 5 June 2023.
- Iritis, Gurnani B, Kim J, Tripathy K, Mahabadi N, Edens MA. StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf, updated 25 August 2023.
- Diagnosis and management of red eye in primary care, Cronau H, Kankanala RR, Mauger T. American Family Physician, 2010.
- Acute angle-closure glaucoma, Khazaeni B, Zeppieri M, Khazaeni L. StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf, updated 10 January 2026.
- Red eye, NHS, National Health Service (UK), reviewed 27 October 2025.
- Shingles, NHS, National Health Service (UK), reviewed 23 November 2023.
This page is for information only and is not a substitute for a medical consultation. Guideline links are provided for transparency; treatment decisions are made with your doctor.
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