Health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United States, have urged 41 million Americans not to sleep or swim wearing their contact lenses. Those turning a blind eye to the alert may suffer serious eye damage and contact lens-related corneal infections.
As per the report, published in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), almost 1 in 5 lens-related eye infections involved a patient who experienced eye damage. The infections were reported to a federal database.
Nearly 41 million Americans who wear lenses and benefit from its use may be putting themselves at risk by not following contact lens use instructions. Not changing the lenses regularly, wearing them for long hours and swimming with the lenses on have triggered severe eye injuries among numerous Americans.
Inappropriate use of lenses led to eye damage in 20 percent of the 1,075 contact lens-related infections reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2005 to 2015. The infections and injuries included those with scarred corneas, corneal transplant patients and those suffering reduction in vision.
The good news is contact lens-related eye infections are easily preventable. However, Americans are not following instructions properly. More than 10 percent of the cases in the report revealed that a patient had to be rushed to the emergency room for immediate treatment.
"While people who get serious eye infections represent a small percentage of those who wear contacts, they serve as a reminder for all contact lens wearers to take simple steps to prevent infections," M.D., M.P.H., medical epidemiologist in CDC's Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch, Jennifer Cope, said in a statement.
Three suggestions from CDC to prevent eye damage due to contact lenses are not sleeping with lenses on unless otherwise discussed with the eye doctor, not adding new solution to old solution in the case and replacing contact lenses as recommended by the doctor.
