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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Conjunctival Commensal Isolation and Identification in Mice
Published on: May 1, 2021
Normal ocular flora in healthy eyes from a rural population in Sierra Leone
J A Capriotti1, J S Pelletier, M Shah
1New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, New York, NY, USA.
Purpose:
To identify the normal conjunctival flora in a rural population in Sierra Leone and compare the normal ocular flora of a developing country with that of the developed world.
Methods:
Conjunctival swabs obtained from healthy right eyes of 276 residents of Masungbo, Sierra Leone, were analyzed for growth of microorganisms.
Results:
The most commonly isolated organisms from conjunctival swabs of healthy eyes were coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (28.6%), fungus (26.0%), Staphylococcus aureus (19.9%), Gram negatives other than Pseudomonas/Haemophilus (9.8%), Nocardia/Actinomyces (6.5%), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (6.2%).
Conclusions:
There is a high prevalence of fungal and bacterial colonization of healthy eyes in a rural population of Sierra Leone. A relationship may exist between resident normal flora and the etiology of ocular infections.
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