Don’t turn a blind eye to hygiene if you wear contact lenses – it can lead to an infection that could cause real blindness, scientists have warned this week.
Around 85 per cent of all causes of AK (acanthamoeba keratitis) are from poor hygiene habits when wearing contact lenses, such as cleaning them with tap water.
Even many of the contact lens solutions are ineffective against the organism that causes AK. In a review of 11 commercially-available solutions, only two were able to kill two of the organisms responsible for AK, and none was effective against the third.
(Source: Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 2009; 47: 2040).