Millions of contact lens users are at risk of eye-devouring amoeba that can turn them blind

• Acanthamoeba parasite present in plain tap water, dust and pools
• Causes painful infection that's 'potential problems for good single contact wearer'
• Can eat its way with the cornea and even result in blindness

By Fiona Macrae

Released: 16:23 GMT, 6 September 2012

Users should be dilligent about keeping their contact contacts clean, say researchers

Contact users are subject to an insect that's present in plain tap water and gnaws with the eyeballs leading to blindness, researchers have cautioned.

Using the Acanthamoeba parasite also present in dust, within the ocean as well as in showers and pools, huge numbers of people are in risk worldwide, including Britain's 3.7million contact customers.

The particular quantity of infections is small but treatment methods are lengthy, painful and never completely effective, meaning some British people remain blind each year.

Fiona Henriquez, from the College from the West of Scotland, stated: 'It is really a potential problem for every contact individual.'

Professor Craig Roberts, from the Strathclyde College, who's dealing with Dr Henriquez to create better contact cleaning solutions, stated: 'It's absolutely everywhere.'

The British Science Festival in Aberdeen heard that Acanthamoeba, a small single-celled parasite, eats bacteria available on dirty contact contacts and cases.

Once the lens is make the eye, it begins to consume its way with the cornea, the surface from the eyeball and breeding as the story goes.

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Signs and symptoms of include scratchy and watery eyes, blurred vision, sensitivity to light, swelling from the upper eye lid and extreme discomfort.

Reason: The Acanthamoeba parasite that resides in plain tap water and mud

Vision could be permanently broken inside a week, stated Graeme Stevenson, an optician.

'Generally it leaves you with skin damage. Your cornea is the window on existence and when the problem permeates in for the third layer you're playing skin damage, having a type of chilled windshield.'

He added that lots of the 75 infections recorded every year within the United kingdom occur because individuals neglect to do as instructed they're provided by their optician.

'Usually a variety of it is non-compliance. It's patients rinsing their situation in plain tap water or rinsing their contacts in plain tap water. Potentially simple things like swimming or taking a shower while putting on their contacts boosts the risk considerably.'

Treatment includes Dettol-like eye drops, with patients initially receiving treatment every twenty minutes, day and evening and investing as much as three days in hospital. Probably the most severe cases receive cornea transplants.

Advice for staying away from the bug includes keeping contacts and cases neat and changing them regularly.

The affect of Acanthamoeba around the eye of the contact individual

The British Contact Association recommends against putting on contact contacts while swimming, unless of course goggles will also be worn. And when contact contacts are stored all the while taking a shower, eyes ought to be tightly closed.

Dr Tara Beattie, of Strathclyde College, stated: 'Millions of individuals put on contacts and posess zero problem. We do not want people thinking "we can not put on contacts anymoreInch.

'That's not the situation but what they desire to complete is perform some research about cleaning.A