If you wear contact lenses, it is highly likely you are doing something to give yourself an eye infection.
At least that is the conclusion from a national government survey that found contact lens wearers perform at least one risky behavior that can lead to eye infections.
More than 99 percent of respondents to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s survey reported they:
• Kept contact lens cases for longer than recommended (82 percent),
• Added new solution to existing solution instead of emptying the case fully before adding new solution (55 percent), or
• Wore lenses while sleeping (50 percent).
Each behavior can raise the risk of eye infections by five times or more, the CDC reported Thursday.
To prevent infections, contact lens wearers must wash their hands before touching their lenses and take out their contacts before showering, sleeping or swimming.
Their contact lens case should be replaced at least once every three months.
Each time a contact lens is removed, it should be rubbed and rinsed with disinfecting solution.
The findings were culled from an online survey administered to a sample of more than 4,200 contact lens wearers. Another survey estimated the number of contact lens wearers in the U.S., which came out to about 41 million adults, the CDC said.
