Internet purchase of contact lenses and missing out on vital eye checks have been blamed for a soaring rate of eye infections including Acanthamoeba keratitis.
A report in the Mail on Sunday (September 21) stated that ‘foreign websites that sell lenses without asking to see evidence of a prescription are believed to be largely to blame for the problem’.
Professor John Dart said that the trend towards internet purchasing had contributed to the risk because people did not undergo vital eye checks so frequently. He has seen a seven-fold increase in cases of Acanthamoeba since 2010.
Speaking on The Breakfast Show this week (September 22), Professor Dart said that one study in Australia had made the association between internet purchase and infection and it was probably due to poor education of those patients who were not getting reinforced advice about contact lens safety measures, whch they would get when seeing their optometrist.
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