- A 38-year-old UK man contracted an eye parasite after swimming in Bali with contacts
- He developed Acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare infection from waterborne microscopic organisms
- Symptoms included severe eye pain, redness, sensitivity to light, and difficulty opening the eye
A 38-year-old man in the United Kingdom contracted an eye-eating parasite during his trip to Bali, Indonesia, in May. As reported by People magazine, Matt Flack of Colchester, Essex, developed a rare infection after wearing his contact lenses into a swimming pool. Shortly after swimming, the man started having infection-like symptoms and struggled to open his left eye. He initially thought the irritation was due to sand and saltwater from surfing. But according to Kennedy News and Media, he started experiencing severe pain and extreme sensitivity to light and redness.
"I stopped wearing my contact lenses and figured whatever it was would sort itself out," Flack said as quoted. "But then it worsened. I became really sensitive to light, and it got more uncomfortable. The watering was pretty much constant, and I couldn't really open [my eye] much."
He bought antiseptic drops from a local pharmacy, then consulted a doctor when he returned to the UK on July 10. He also underwent a small procedure of corneal scraping, in which a small sample of tissue is taken from the cornea.
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About Acanthamoeba keratitis
However, doctors ultimately diagnosed him with Acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare but serious condition caused by a microscopic organism often found in water sources such as pools, hot tubs, tap water, and lakes.
According to Cleveland Clinic, people who wear contacts or are immunocompromised have the highest risk of contracting this condition. It's treatable, but the best way to deal with this condition is to prevent it from happening.
The symptoms include eye pain, feeling like something's stuck in your eye, but washing your eyes doesn't help, and you can't see anything stuck there, watery eye (epiphora), light sensitivity (photophobia), eye redness or irritation, corneas that appear cloudy, dirty or that have a ring-shaped area on their surface, blurred or clouded vision.
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When a contact lens is worn in water, it creates a small space where microscopic parasites can get trapped against the surface of the eye (the cornea). The parasite, Acanthamoeba, burrows into the outer layer of the eye, causing painful inflammation and eating away at the tissue over time.
"It's essentially a parasite eating away at my eye," Flack said. "When the doctors told me it was that, I [felt] big panic and I was very scared."
"I'm not ashamed to admit I had a little cry," he added. "At that point, I thought, 'Well, I'm going to lose an eye.'"
"In the absolute worst-case scenario, I wave goodbye to my left eye. It's a horrifying thought," he further added.
Symptoms are similar to an eye infection; hence, proper diagnosis can often be delayed, giving the parasite more time to damage vision.
"There's a huge fear that I'll become blind in that eye. To find out I've got something that could potentially take one of [my eyes] away is petrifying," he said.
"If it continues to fight the eye drops or gets worse, then that's obviously a lot more impactful on my eyesight, and we could be talking about corneal transplants and operation after operation."
"It's important for contact lens wearers to realize just because you wear dailies doesn't mean you're safe. I wore daily contacts, and here I am," he said.
"If I can just get a couple of people to take their contacts out before they fling themself into a swimming pool, that'll be good news because no one needs to go through this."
