Do you want to stop touching your face? Trench contacts for glasses

By Sandee LaMotte | CNN

Focus on this, contact lens wearers around the world: To reduce the spread of the pandemic virus that causes Covid-19, the American Academy of Ophthalmology suggests it is time to put your contact lenses on the shelf and dazzle the world with your frames.

Experts say it’s not because wearing contact lenses puts you at higher risk for the disease.

The reason the academy suggests the change is because wearing glasses can help you stop touching your face. Touching the face, and especially the nose and mouth, is a key way of spreading any virus, including the new coronavirus.

Why contact lenses?

Contact lens wearers not only touch their eyes to put on and take off the lens twice or more a day, but they also touch their eyes and face much more than people who do not wear contact lenses, Dr said. Thomas Steinemann, clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

“You touch your eye and then you touch another part of your body,” said Steinemann, an ophthalmologist at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

“You rub your eyes, then you rub your face, you scratch your face, you put your fingers in your mouth, you put your fingers on your nose,” he added. “Some people are not very hygienic and may have forgotten to wash their hands first.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. USA They conducted a study and found that a third of contact lens wearers were not following proper hygiene practices, such as hand washing, putting on and taking off their contact lenses. Poor hygiene has contributed to three outbreaks of potentially blinding eye disease in the United States. USA, CDC says.

Other studies have found that an estimated 140 million contact lens wearers worldwide may not be too concerned about their poor hygiene when it comes to contact lenses.

Although the use of glasses or other eye protection is essential for any health professional who cares for patients with Covid-19, for the rest of us “it is just another preventive, another way to add a filter to avoid the coronavirus. . Steinemann said.

In case you were wondering, you are unlikely to be able to get the new coronavirus, or any virus, from the eye itself.

“Can you kill Covid-19 from the virus that enters through the eye? Theoretically, it is possible, but we have no proof of that, “he added.

“I suppose it is possible, but I always thought that was a bit of a stretch,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville.

Pink eyes connection

Most likely, this new coronavirus can cause conjunctivitis, a highly contagious condition also known as conjunctivitis. Conjunctivitis is an inflammation of the thin, clear layer of tissue, called the conjunctiva, that covers the white of the eye and the inside of the eyelid.

“The conjunctiva is a modified mucous membrane, like the inside of the mouth or the inside of the nose or the nasal cavity and pharynx,” said Steinemann.

“It is humid and pleasant and hospitable to viruses, in fact, there are many organisms that can very easily adhere to your conjunctiva, or actually adhere to a contact lens that also rests on your conjunctiva,” he added.

Symptoms of conjunctivitis include tearing, itching or burning, blurred, red or “pink” vision in the white part of the eye, pus, mucus, and a yellow discharge that can crust the eyelashes, often sticking the eyes after sleep .

Reports from China and around the world show that about 1% to 3% of people with Covid-19 also had conjunctivitis.

This is troubling because the coronavirus can spread by touching liquid from an infected person’s eyes or from objects that person has touched and then carries the liquid.

The news caused more than a dozen national eye organizations to ask eye doctors to stop seeing patients for anything other than urgent or emergency care, such as eye injuries. That includes both the office and surgical care.

“Each of us has a social responsibility not to function as a vector for a life-threatening disease,” the academy said in its announcement. “This is an existential crisis. We as physicians must respond to and support our colleagues and our communities. Take care.”

A study recently published by the American Academy of Ophthalmology found no evidence that people with Covid-19 were removing the virus from their tears, but no one in the study had conjunctivitis. Therefore, it is still unknown whether the new coronavirus can be transmitted by tears.

Do not panic

According to experts, that doesn’t mean that any red or pink eye is a sign of Covid-19.

The new coronavirus, also called SARS-CoV-2, is just one of many viruses that can cause conjunctivitis; in fact, it is so common that it was not a real surprise to scientists that this newly discovered Covid-19 virus did the same.

“There are many organisms that can easily adhere to your conjunctiva, or actually adhere to a contact lens that also rests on your conjunctiva,” said Steinemann.

There are numerous viruses and bacteria responsible for the common cold that can cause conjunctivitis, as well as fungi, amoebas, and parasites that accumulate by swimming in polluted water. Allergic reactions to smoke or dust, shampoos, pool chlorine, and even eye drops can be the culprits.

In addition, there are many other, often benign, causes of conjunctivitis: seasonal allergies; a stye, which is a blocked eye canal or a kind of “eye pimple”; a chalazion, which is an inflammation of the gland along the eyelid; blepharitis, another inflammation or infection of the skin along the eyelid; or iritis, an inflammation of the colored part of your eye called the iris.

Neither of those conditions is contagious.