Don't wear your contact lenses in the water!

The New England Journal of Medicine recently detailed the case of a woman in the U.K. who was diagnosed with Acanthamoeba Keratitis, a rare eye infection causing corneal disease that can lead to permanent vision loss. The woman contracted the infection after swimming and showering while wearing her monthly disposable contact lenses. 

The patient began experiencing fleeting eye pain, blurry vision and light sensitivity in her left eye. The vision in her left eye measured 20/200 compared to the 20/20 vision in her right eye. Diagnosis was made after doctors did a corneal scraping along with eyedrops that contained fluorescein dye, which highlighted the infection with a green color. The infection was cleared up with antimicrobial eyedrops but her vision impairment remained because she had developed a corneal scar and a cataract. A year later, she underwent eye surgery that improved her vision and eliminated her discomfort. But her vision only improved to 20/80.

A water-borne amoeba causes Acanthamoeba Keratitis and it only affects one or two per million contact lens wearers in the United States every year. Contact lens wearers are more susceptible to the amoeba because contact lenses absorb water and rest directly on the surface of the eye. So they provide a direct pathway of the amoeba to the cornea. Eye specialists agree that the best way to prevent this potentially blinding eye infection is to remove your contact lenses before coming into contact with water and to replace contact lenses in a timely fashion to maintain good hygiene.