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Irenie lost her vision in one eye after it became infected (Picture: Getty)

A woman lost the sight in her right eye after it became infected with a bacteria typically found in tap water whenshe changed her contact lens.

Irenie Ekkeshie, now 36, was hospitalised in 2011 after she woke up with her right eye streaming with tears.

Doctors gave her a cornea scrape a procedure that takes cells from the surface of the eyeball and antiseptic eye drops to take hourly.

She wasdiagnosed with Acanthamoeba Keratitis (AK), a rare but serious eye infection caused by a micro-organism thats common in tap water, sea water and swimming pools.

Although no one could be certain it was thought she may have changed her contact lens with wet hands.

But given they caught it early, doctors at Moorfield Eye Hospital were hopeful that Irenie would recover in three weeks.

But the opposite occurred, it took months for doctors to get the infection under control by which time her eye had scarred leaving her with blurred vision.

So in May 2013 she had a corneal transplant, which appeared to be successful.

AKis an infection of the cornea that affects around 125 people in the UK every year. Most cases involve contact lenses

But devastatingly the infection returned and, after a second transplant, she completely lost the vision in her right eye. Doctors think the inflammation caused by the AK was the source of the problem and it is unlikely to return.

After discovering that none of her friends or family knew of the risks of exposing a contact lens to water she decided to raise awareness of the issue.

She has since designed No Water stickers with the British Contact Lens Association that opticians can puton the outside of boxes.

She has spread the campaign in America as well after attracting the attention of the American Academy of Optometry.

Her hope is the graphic will be printed automatically on all boxes and has co-founded The New Citizenship Project to help others create change.

My advice to people is simple. Never let your lenses come into contact with water in the shower, swimming or when washing, she told the BBC.

Although infections like AK are rare, Im proof they can happen and the results can be devastating.

You should always:

Source: NHS Choices

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Read the original post:
Woman goes blind in one eye after contact lens became infected - Metro

This entry was posted on April 13, 2017 at 9:45 pm and is filed under Eye Sight & Vision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |