Woman’s Contact Lens Care Leads to Parasitic Eye Infection

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Traci Lawson turned into recognized with pinkeye, but two weeks later, her left eye changed into all at once getting worse. LISTEN UP: Add the brand new Michigan Medicine NewsBreak for your Alexa-enabled device, or join our each-day updates on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher. “My eye became milky looking and had gotten so swollen it become protruding from my face,” says Lawson of Lansing, Mich., who describes the attention pain as though she became being “jabbed with a warm poker.” She turned into also sensitivity to light. Finally, after going to 6 docs, she changed into mentioned the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center, wherein she became diagnosed with Acanthamoeba keratitis: a parasite.

Woman’s Contact Lens Care Leads to Parasitic Eye Infection 1

“People who wear touch lenses are at expanded risk for having contamination with Acanthamoeba, but it’s normally with sure danger factors,” says Kellogg cornea expert Shahzad Mian, M.D., professor of ophthalmology at Michigan Medicine. Acanthamoeba eye infections in contact lens wearers are severe but rare, and those infections regularly begin due to mistaken lens dealing with and terrible hygiene.

Poor touch lens behavior, which includes washing lenses in faucet water or showering while wearing contact lenses, can grow the hazard. If not dealt with directly, Acanthamoeba keratitis can motive permanent vision loss. In Lawson’s case, she might need a cornea transplant to restore her misplaced imagination and prescient. It’s the notion that Lawson, 50, stuck the worm while rinsing her touch lens case in faucet water or while swimming in her touch lenses on vacation in northern Michigan. SEE ALSO: Watch Out for These Summer Eye Dangers Water can harbor bacteria and parasites, and phone lenses can act like sponges and hold water. It makes contacts and swimming a dangerous combination. The occurrence of infection will increase in the summer season months, probably because water sports activities and swimming and boating are more commonplace then.  Acanthamoeba organisms are all around us, Mian says, generally found in soil, dust, faucet water, swimming pools, and warm tubs.

But Acanthamoeba keratitis is regularly tough for an eye-fixed health practitioner to diagnose because the symptoms are just like pinkeye or viral contamination early on. As it progresses and the parasite takes keep within the cornea, ring-like ulceration of the corneal tissue may additionally appear. Diagnosis of keratitis frequently takes place as soon as it’s far determined that the situation is proof against antibiotics used to manage different infections. Imaging exams and culturing the cornea can also pinpoint the purpose. “The problem sincerely is diagnosing it quickly and early on so that the right remedy can be started,” Mian says.