Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that almost a million eye infection cases in the United States were due to misuse of contact lenses.
Eye infections account for $175 million of direct healthcare costs, and most of the expenses are related to keratitis. Keratitis is the inflammation of the cornea of the eye, and is usually caused by infections, dry eyes, injuries and other diseases.
Most of the infections are linked to misuse of contact lenses; people wear them longer than recommended and sometimes leave them in overnight. The study found that those who sleep with their contact lenses in are 20 times more likely to get keratitis.
Researchers studied medical records across the United States, and found that eye infections account for 930,000 visits to outpatient care centers and 58,000 emergency room visits. More than half of the patients were women, and cases were not age-dependent.
"Contact lenses can provide many benefits, but they are not risk-free - especially if contact lens wearers take shortcuts and don't take care of their contact lenses and supplies. Healthy habits mean healthy eyes," said CDC Medical Epidemiologist Jennifer Cope.
The CDC has launched a campaign to educate people about the proper use of contact lenses. Officials reminded wearers to always wash their hands and disinfect the contact lens prior to storage. It is also recommended to replace the contact lens every three months.
"There is no question that many people love to use contact lenses instead of spectacles. Using contact lenses, however, does carry the risk of infection and, in extreme cases, blindness," Dr. Alfred Sommer of Johns Hopkins University's Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore said to Healthday News. He is not involved in the study.
Details of the study were published in the Nov. 13 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
