Contact Lens
(IN PHOTO)Dr. Alan Titelbaum from the Eye Associates of Somerville, holds up a contact lens at his practice in Somerville, Massachusetts June 10, 2008. While a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel is meeting June 10 to discuss the safety of contact lens care products following the contamination of some Bausch & Lomb products in 2006, Dr. Titelbaum has long advised his patients to rub or dust their contact lenses to clean them, even when using so-called "no rub" solutions. REUTERS

Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center claim to have found a possible cause behind the increase in frequency of eye infections in individuals wearing contact lens on regular basis. With the use of high-precision genetic tests, the study authors have found strong evidence that everyday products do influence the normal microbial flora residing in the human body.

The report on the study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology on May 31 in New Orleans where the study authors revealed that daily contact lens wearers harbour diverse set of microorganisms in their eyes which closely resembles the group of microorganisms typically found in the eyes of non-wearers. Study author Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, a microbiologist at New York University Langone Medical Center, says, “Our research clearly shows that putting a foreign object, such as a contact lens, on the eye is not a neutral act.”

The study involved the analysis of microbiota living on and around the eyes of 20 volunteers among whom nine wore contact lens, while the others did not. The results showed that the eye surface, or the conjunctiva of the study's nine contact lens wearers, had higher bacterial diversity than the skin directly beneath the eye. Also, the presence of bacteria such as Methylobacterium, Lactobacillus, Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas, was three times more in contact lens wearers than the usual proportion of bacteria found in the surface of the eyes of 11 other participants who did not wear contact lens. However, the most common causative agent of eye infections, Staphylococcus aureus, was found in greater amounts in the eyes of non-contact lens wearers which the researchers were unable to explain why.

Dominguez-Bello adds, “These findings should help scientists better understand the longstanding problem of why contact-lens wearers are more prone to eye infections than non-lens-wearers. What we hope our future experiments will show is whether these changes in the eye microbiome of lens wearers are due to fingers touching the eye, or from the lens’s direct pressure affecting and altering the immune system in the eye and what bacteria are suppressed or are allowed to thrive.”

Dr Jack Dodick, the study author and professor and chair of ophthalmology at NYU Langone, in a concluding note, says, "There has been an increase in the prevalence of corneal ulcers following the introduction of soft contact lenses in the 1970s. A common pathogen implicated has been Pseudomonas. This study suggests that because the offending organisms seem to emanate from the skin, greater attention should be directed to eyelid and hand hygiene to decrease the incidence of this serious occurrence."

To contact the writer, email:ruchira.dhoke@gmail.com

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