Simon Jones: Watered down supply

A BBC Suffolk story this week (June 9) caused several shakes of the head and one or two facepalms. Fifty-eight-year-old contact lens wearer Nicola Greenfield had unfortunately been diagnosed with acanthamoeba keratitis after swimming in her contact lenses and feared losing sight in the affected eye. 

Any competent optometrist or contact lens optician will tell a patient that contact lenses should not be worn while swimming, but Greenfield, a contact lens wearer of 40 years, was seemingly unaware of this. ‘I was always told not to sleep in contact lenses, that was a big no-no, but I don’t know why opticians are not telling people not to wear them when they shower or swim,’ she told the BBC.