Contact lenses offer a floor of convenience for those with less - than - perfect imagination that glass can hardly compete with , but that does n’t mean the casual conflict of take away them in and out of your optic does n’t wear on you . If you get a piddling lazy and decide it ’s ok to leave them in your center during showers or pool party , reckon again .
According toPopular Science , a 41 - year - old woman in the UK lose pile in her left eye as a resultant role of oft showering and swim without remove her contact lens . The culprit wasAcanthamoeba polyphaga , a protozoa that crawled into her eye and caused a cornea infection called Acanthamoeba keratitis . After two months of pain , blurry vision , and light sensitivity , the woman sought medical attention at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital , where doctors discover a ring shape in her left eye and a blurred layer covering her cornea . Upon testing her vision , they come up that her left oculus was now 20/200 , which depend as legally blind in the United States .
Leela Raju , an ophthalmologist and cornea specialist at New York University , toldPopular Sciencethat the single - celled organism “ can be anywhere , ” including pools , hot tub , shower , foul saline solution resolution container , and even tap water . Lens - wearer make up around 85 percentage of those who get taint , and experts intend it may be because the ameba can latch onto acontact lensmore easily than a bare middle .
ThoughPopular Sciencereports that Acanthamoeba keratitis only affects one or two multitude out of every million contact wearers each class , that ’s no rationality not to be careful . If you do catch it , you ’ll likely want a cornea organ transplant , and even that wo n’t necessarily restore your sightedness to its previous state — after her transplant , the UK adult female ’s leave eye now has 20/80 vision .
“ It ’s just a prospicient route , for something that ’s totally preventable , ” Raju state . In addition to dispatch your contacts before swimming , shower , orsleeping , you should also refrain fromreusing saline solution solution , ensure your contact sheath is completely fresh and ironic before filling it with more solution , and match outthese other tips .
[ h / tPopular Science ]
