‘Remove contact lenses before washing’

 Contact lens wearers should remove them before washing to reduce their risk of contracting a rare infection that can cause blindness, experts at Moorfields Eye Hospital have said.

The London hospital said it had seen a huge increase in the number of cases of Acanthamoeba keratitis since 2011.

The preventable infection causes the front surface of the eye, the cornea, to become painful and inflamed and contact lens wearers are most at risk. From 2000-03, eight to 10 cases per year were recorded at the hospital, according to a study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. This rose to between 35 to 65 cases from 2011 to 2016.

A study in 2002 estimated the prevalence of Acanthamoeba keratitis in south-east England to be 2.5 cases per 100,000 contact lens wearers. It is now two to three times higher, researchers from University College London and Moorfields Eye Hospital said. Severely affected patients are left with less than 25 per cent of their vision or become blind.