Can having a virus cause your eye to twitch?

Question: Can having a virus cause your eye to twitch?

Answer: There is some evidence to support the link between eye twitching and a virus when looking at the causes behind Bell’s palsy which is a paralysis of one half of the facial muscles. The cause of Bell’s palsy is a compression of the nerve which enters the face through a small canal in the bone near our ears. This is thought to be caused by inflammation of the tissue surrounding that canal which compresses or pinches the nerve. An “eye twitch virus” could therefore be a less severe form of this where the nerve is only being partially pinched rather than the complete compression present in Bell’s palsy. Epstein-Barr (mono), and Zoster viruses are among the most highly suspected causes but unfortunately there is no concrete evidence supporting them as the cause of Bell’s palsy or even that a virus is causing it at all it’s simply the most widely suspected reason in the medical community.

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