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PSA for those who wear contacts
If you wear contact lenses, you should be aware that there has been a recent outbreak of Acanthamoeba, which can cause a serious infection of the eye that can easily lead to blindness.
Acanthamoeba is a particularly nasty parasite that's pretty much found everywhere, including tap water, but only in rare cases leads to infections -- my optometrist dad has only seen 1-2 cases in his career. You have to get some pretty powerful (read: nasty) stuff to knock it out, and if you don't catch it in time, you may need a corneal transplant.
There is some (unsubstantiated) evidence that multi-purpose contact lens solution may be partly to blame. My dad has grumbled about this for some years - he wants to go back to the days where we had separate disinfectant tablets for special cleaning of the lens, and regular solution for storing lenses. The disinfectant tablets are quite effective, but somewhat of a hassle and have to be rinsed carefully because they really, really sting your eyes.
For now, the best thing to do is to take good care of your lenses, use new contact solution for storage every night, and change them when the directions say to.
Acanthamoeba is a particularly nasty parasite that's pretty much found everywhere, including tap water, but only in rare cases leads to infections -- my optometrist dad has only seen 1-2 cases in his career. You have to get some pretty powerful (read: nasty) stuff to knock it out, and if you don't catch it in time, you may need a corneal transplant.
There is some (unsubstantiated) evidence that multi-purpose contact lens solution may be partly to blame. My dad has grumbled about this for some years - he wants to go back to the days where we had separate disinfectant tablets for special cleaning of the lens, and regular solution for storing lenses. The disinfectant tablets are quite effective, but somewhat of a hassle and have to be rinsed carefully because they really, really sting your eyes.
For now, the best thing to do is to take good care of your lenses, use new contact solution for storage every night, and change them when the directions say to.
