TENERIFE, Spain, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Most contact lens cases on Tenerife, a Canary Island, are contaminated with a protozoa that can't be killed by contact lens solution, researchers said.
The scientists looked at 153 contact lens cases, 90 containing lenses, from people in Tenerife who were showing no symptoms of infection and found 65.9 percent of the cases and lenses were contaminated with pathogenic Acanthamoeba and 30 percent of the amoebae identified were highly pathogenic.
Acanthamoeba is the most common types of protozoa found in soil and often found in fresh water. One of the diseases caused by Acanthamoeba, amoebic keratitis, is an infection of the eye and about 85 percent of all amoebic keratitis cases occur in people who wear contact lenses.
Dr. Basilio Valladares of the University Institute of Tropical Diseases and Public Health of the Canary Islands, University of La Laguna, said no pathogenic strains were found in daily contact lenses but several pathogenic amoebae were isolated from monthly and bi-monthly lenses.
The two-year use lenses that were analyzed contained a high percentage of pathogenic amoebae due to a lack of hygiene and poor care of the lenses, Valladares said.
The findings are to be published in the November issue of the Journal of Medical Microbiology.
