>scheisskopf53 · 3 hr. ago
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>When I was in primary school, my perfectly healthy friend lost his eyesight almost completely over a week or so. He does see vague shapes but is legally blind. Back then, the adults told me that it was due to flu complications. Is this actually possible? If so, what would be the mechanism?

I am not a medical doctor and cannot speak to your friend’s situation. On the larger question of how influenza virus infection may interact with the eyes, this is an area I study frequently in the laboratory. Some influenza viruses are able to replicate specifically within ocular tissue (because the same types of receptors that influenza viruses bind to in the respiratory tract are also present on the human ocular surface) and influenza viruses can use the eye as a portal of entry to establish a respiratory infection (because the lacrimal duct bridges ocular and respiratory tissues). You can read more about documented cases of ocular complications following influenza virus infection and how we study this in the laboratory here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29477464/ .