The 3^rd week in August is contact lens week.  This year it falls on August 21^st-25^th. This seemingly quiet and understated health week may be one of the most important ones of the year!

Did you know that keratitis is a leading cause of global blindness, and the number one cause of infectious keratitis in the United States is due to contact lens related issues?

Keratitis is an inflammation of the cornea (the clear, outer most layer of the eye which serves as a protective layer, among other things). Improper use of contact lenses, overuse or over wearing may cause an infection in the eye which, if not properly taken case if may lead to vision loss or worse, blindness.

The contact lens global market is estimated at 19.45 billion US dollars in 2024¹. There are many types of contact lenses available for therapeutic and non-therapeutic purposes, including soft and hard contact lenses.  Although contact lenses have evolved and become much safer throughout the decades, adverse events may still occur. Corneal abrasions, edema (or swelling of the cornea), neovascularization, conjunctivitis, midday fogging, inflammation, and infection may all still occur1.

Wearing contact lenses is a prevalent risk factor for microbial keratitis (MK), with an incident rate of approximately 2-20 cases per 10,000 wearers each year².

Not following your doctors’ instructions for safe contact lens use may cause anywhere from mild irritation and redness to blindness, in a worst case scenario.

So, what can be done to help prevent contact lens infection?

The CDC recommends the following heathy habits to #protectyoureyes
and safely wear your lenses:

• Don’t sleep in your contact lenses
• Wash your hands
• Keep contact lenses away from all water!!
• Properly clean your lenses
• Take care of your contact lens case
• Talk with your eye care provider
• Be prepared

1. Hatami, H., Ghaffari Jolfayi, A., Ebrahimi, A., Golmohammadi, S., Zangiabadian, M., & Nasiri, M. J. (2021). Contact Lens Associated Bacterial Keratitis: Common Organisms, Antibiotic Therapy, and Global Resistance Trends: A Systematic Review. Frontiers in Ophthalmology, 1. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fopht.2021.759271
2. Fleiszig, S. M. J., Kroken, A. R., Nieto, V., Grosser, M. R., Wan, S. J., Metruccio, M. M. E., & Evans, D. J. (2020). Contact lens-related corneal infection: Intrinsic resistance and its compromise. Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, 76, 100804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.preteyeres.2019.100804

Top Image Credit: Bryan Tong Minh, CC BY 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons