Joe Ayling: No water (under any circumstances)

It doesn’t seem long since the halcyon days of August when the recycling of contact lenses (Optician 31.08.18) responsibly emerged as a priority for optics.

With autumn upon us, the subject of water and contact lenses has returned under a slightly gloomier guise as we learn cases of Acanthamoeba keratitis have tripled in the space of 15 years (see In Focus).

Researchers at Moorfields link the higher incidence to a number of compliance factors including water contamination and poor hygiene. The emergence of daily disposables as a more popular choice among wearers doesn’t seem to have even made a dent on the infection numbers – although an overall 2.5 in every 100,000 wearers still seems low.