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Report highlights importance of hand washing to eye health of contact lens wearers
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Researchers bring to attention the need for handwashing and improved hand hygiene education for contact lens wearers in a review published in Contact Lens and Anterior Eye.
“Intuitively, contact lens wearers should be more compliant than nonwearers with regard to hand washing, as they have been instructed on lens care, insertion and removal procedures, which include the importance of hand hygiene,” Desmond Fonn, MO, FAAO, professor at the University of Waterloo, and co-author Lyndon Jones, PhD, DSc, FCO, FAAO, FBCLA, director of the Center for Ocular Research & Education, said in the study.
“However, there is substantial evidence that many contact lens wearers are not compliant with hand washing procedures,” they said.
Citing several studies, the authors concluded that no more than two-thirds of individuals washed their hands after using the bathroom. Adequate hand hygiene can prevent diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea and eye infection.
“If hand contact is the originating vector causing microbes to attach to lenses, cases, eyelids and the ocular surface, then careful handwashing should greatly minimize the transfer,” the authors said. “[But] other strategies should be developed to prevent and combat the presence of microbial contamination.”
Fonn and Jones suggested several methods to prevent eye infection resulting from inadequate hand hygiene. For example, daily disposable lenses would minimize hand contact with the lens considering the are thrown away after each wearing. Additionally, wearers could either wear gloves while putting in the lenses or first disinfect their fingers with alcohol wipes.
“While proof that hand washing reduces infection dates back to the mid-1800s, we’re still facing significant issues in having consumers change their hygiene behaviors,” Jones stated in a press release from the Center for Ocular Research & Education. “In compiling this review of public health literature, our hope is to make the facts and possible mitigation strategies more accessible to eye care professionals. They’re on the front lines of helping contact lens wearers understand that eye health is literally in their own hands.” – by Scott Buzby
Disclosure: Fonn reports he is a consultant to CooperVision Inc. and the Centre for Ocular Research & Education, University of Waterloo. Jones reports he is a consultant to and serves on the advisory boards of Alcon, CooperVision, Johnson & Johnson Vision, Novartis and Ophtec.
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