6 months of eye lenses on + hungry amoebas = eyes eaten right out of the socket

sharkboy1200

sharkboy1200

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Sep 11, 2013
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The cardinal rule when using contact lenses is to maintain proper hygiene. That means cleaning them regularly and disposing of them when recommended. Not doing so can leave the wearer susceptible to infections, which are the smallest of problems to be worried about, considering that 23-year-old Taiwanese student, Lian Kao, became infected by a bug that gnaws the eyeballs after keeping her lenses on for six months straight.

The microscopic bug that ate up Kao's cornea was the single-celled amoeba Acanthamoeba, which is notorious for the severe infections it causes in the eye, skin, and central nervous system. The parasite is commonly found in soil, dust, showers, and even swimming pools. When it makes contact with unclean lenses, it starts feeding on the bacteria on them, and if they happen to be on someone's eyes, the parasite burrows down to where it can start feeding on the cornea — a condition called Acanthamoebic keratitis.

Infections of this type are rare. They are hard to detect until the the person with the amoeba in their eye begins to experience acute pain. Early stages of infection may be cured with prescription drugs, but diagnosis is often complicated, delayed, and generally unsuccessful. The Journal of Optometry defines Acanthamoeba keratitis as a blinding complication that results due to wearing a lens past its time. Kao had worn the same lenses for six months, even while swimming, without once cleaning or removing them. This gross negligence cost her an eye.

According to the Daily Mail, the amoeba had eaten up the surface of Kao’s eyes, breeding in the space between her eye and the lens. The director of ophthalmology at Taipei's Wan Fang Hospital, Wu Jian-Liang said, “Contact lens wearers are a high-risk group that can easily be exposed to eye diseases. A shortage of oxygen can destroy the surface of the epithelial tissue, creating tiny wounds into which the bacteria can easily infect, spreading to the rest of the eye and providing a perfect breeding ground. The girl should have thrown the contact lenses away after a month, but instead, she overused them and has now permanently damaged her corneas.”

The doctors are now using Kao’s story to educate the 34 million Americans and 71 million people worldwide who use contacts. Acanthamoeba is responsible for 95 percent of reported cases of keratitis and doctors urge contacts wearers to exercise preventive measures. Personal hygiene with contact lenses includes cleaning them with commercially available cleaning solutions, avoiding water while cleaning, not swimming, showering, or using a hot tub while wearing contacts, and using one’s own without sharing.
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http://www.medicaldaily.com/contact...tudent-went-blind-after-wearing-them-6-months
 
That is crazy. I never knew that could happen. Obviously it could be infected, but to be eaten...damn. If I wore lenses, I would have just stopped and bought glasses:eek:
 
Thanks to this story, if my eyesight ever goes, I'm sticking to glasses.
 
menace-uk- said:
That is crazy. I never knew that could happen. Obviously it could be infected, but to be eaten...damn. If I wore lenses, I would have just stopped and bought glasses:eek:
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As someone who used to wear lenses, I can say that it's so easy to leave them in for long periods. I've slept with mine on multiple times. In fact, once, one of my contacts never came back out of my eye. Maybe it slipped out, but I'm pretty sure that a contact lense was swimming around in my head. Odds are it was destroyed by white blood cells or dissolved. Personally, I like to think it's swimming around between the space of brain and eyeballs.
 
How the hell did she even swim and shower with contacts??? Stupidity is a deadly f***ing disease I tell you!
 
Kassen said:
How the hell did she even swim and shower with contacts??? Stupidity is a deadly f***ing disease I tell you!
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Goggles seem obvious for swimming. Showering is easy with contacts. You just close your eyes when you wash your face, other wise you just keep the head out of the water.
 
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