Hello It's been a busy few days, otherwise I would have responded to your post sooner. I am afraid there is NO warning about water on contact lens packaging. There isn't a leaflet in the box. That's why I'm trying to do something about it. If you ignore advice, that's one thing. But if it's not given to you, that's a whole different issue.
This is a bit of misinformation that is currently still on the packaging for gas permeable lenses- not the same as soft lenses. I personally know a number of hard lens wearers who contracted AK after following these instructions to rinse their lenses in tap water. I am campaigning to get this advice changed as soon as possible. Would love some support.
Hello, I'm the person in this piece. I can confirm I was definitely only wearing dailies for single day then throwing them away. I didn't swim in them but I am not sure about showering. Just to be really clear- acanthamoeba is not a bacterium, it is a single celled organism - a type of amoeba. The infection can take hold in just a few hours, after a single exposure to water. I am happy to answer any other questions you have on this.
Hello, I'm the person in this piece. Just to be clear, tap water is not safe- it contains many micro-organisms including acanthamoeba which can infect the eye via contact lenses. It is wrong to suggest tap water or saliva are safe. Contact lens solutions are not 100% effective at disinfecting lenses. These risks are real, and it's important to be aware of them so you can wear lenses safely. There's good, clear information here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14691169
Hmm.. I've never been able to handle the "all-in-one" solutions (sensitive eyes) and use separate disinfectant and saline. I guess it wouldn't surprise me if the all-in-ones have to compromise somewhat for the sake of comfort (the regular disinfectants are definitely not ok to put in your eye).
Hmm, Contact lens wearer for 30 years now. For 28 of those years I was a RGP lens wearer. They provided much sharper vision for sports, were very cost effective (initial investment was high but lasted 3-5 years with proper care), and daily maintenance was pretty easy.
RGP lenses require a separate cleaner for 30 seconds then a solution for inserting/soaking (eventually they did come out for an all-in-one solution but I never got the same comfort from it). Since day one I was taught by my teenage eye doctor to used tap water as the rinse of the cleaning solution and did for all that time. If you didn't get the cleaning solution off real well, you'd feel it in your eye for a minute. The instructions say to use soaking solution as the "rinse" but I never did as it would be much more expensive and water always worked.
Maybe the type of lens is more susceptible to AK/Infections? RGP is a rigid almost hard type of lens. I've never had any sort of problem using tap water all this time. I've even slept in them a few times in my life. It would seem softer lenses would allow things to adhere more? I wonder if there are any correlations to the type of lens to infection?
I went to dailies two years ago mostly for comfort and convenience. I don't wearcontacts as much as I used to as i've gotten older (just throw on my glasses now because who cares now..) and RGP can get uncomfortable if not wearing them often enough. It appears dailies can give one a false sense as you get "fresh" ones every day. I've swam/showered with them at times and now worry after reading she got the AK even using dailies.
I am bewildered actually because you'd think dailies would be the best possible lens for your eye health. Soft, highly breathable and new pair every use.
Hello there, I'm the person in the piece, I hope you don't mind if I respond to your comment above- I wore dailies as per instructions, only single use and then I threw them away. I had worn lenses every day in the run up to the infection. I hadn't gone swimming in lenses in the previous months but I had occasionally showered in them. We don't know what caused my AK, but many patients have reported swimming or showering in lenses before getting the infection and there is a strong correlation. Epidemiological studies have proven the link between swimming in lenses and AK. Studies have also isolated the same exact genetic strain of acanthamoeba from patients' bathroom sinks and shower taps as the one found in their eyes. Showering is a risk factor for AK. If you want to know more please do go ahead and ask anything else.
I'd just like to say thank-you for writing about what happened to you. I am going to be much more careful about my contacts from now on. I also use dailies, never for > 24hrs. But I didn't dry my hands and used them in the shower occasionally. Not any more.
As a long-time contact lens wearer who has at time been lax with hygiene best-practice (often I drop a lens in the basin, pick it our and rinse off with saline solution), I was a little alarmed after reading what you've been through.
Can you point me towards any further background reading or references on this topic?
Hello pietistic, I'm the person in the piece, I hope you don't mind my responding to you directly. I'm sorry you had AK, and I hope you're doing better now. Just to be clear, swimming in contact lenses is an incontrovertible risk factor for AK- several studies have proved this. Moorfields Eye Hospital are also concluding a case control study which will also identify showering in contact lenses is a risk factor. Here's professor John Dart from Moorfields Eye Hospital talking about these risk factors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neUYomeUkYM. Any questions let me know. thanks!
Just wanted to say that the work you've done is really impressive and inspiring. As a contact lens wearer, I just learned about AK thanks to you. Good on you for taking the initiative to be a force for positive change.
I had a relatively minor eye infection a few years ago, but wanting to prevent something worse, had switched to wearing contacts only for special occasions and... swimming.
Thanks to your sharing, I will no longer swim with them. I'll try prescription goggles instead.
Jesus, I even swim in lakes with mine in. Guess I'll be seriously looking at the the risks+cost of laser vision correction versus contacts in the near future. And switching to daily disposables in the meantime. I've worn them for 15 years and am not very careful, it's a miracle I haven't had any infections of any sort yet, I guess.
Getting LASEK was one of the better decisions I've made in life. The risk of infection is extremely low for the procedure but you need to be extra careful while you're healing. It may not be worth the price if your vision is currently not that awful, however.
there is a 1 in 100K chance of serious complications for modern LASIX requiring corneal transplant. That's a higher incidence than the chance of getting AK if you wear contact lenses.
Both are terrible complications but I don't see the rationale of avoiding AK by getting LASIX. I couldn't find any literature but it seems to me that the fact that LASIX damages the cornea for a time would also leave one open to an infection in addition to the complications.
Yeah, but the risk from contact lenses comes over time as it's a risk every time you put your lenses in where with laser correction the risk pretty much only exists while you are healing. You really only have to avoid getting stuff in your eye while the bandage lens is in.
Everything I've read about comparing the risk notes this factor.
I'm sure that if you wear contacts perfectly all the time the risk is very low, but as we all know people do stupid things.
That said, the decision to get surgery was more about not having to deal with glasses or contacts every day and less about the risk.
