Experts suggest that during the coronavirus pandemic it is better to abandon the use of contact lenses and return to the use of glasses. Wearing lenses involves touching your face with your hands and, perhaps most importantly, maneuvering directly against the mucous membrane of the eye, which can significantly affect the transmission of various pathogens to it just from your hands.
Ophthalmologists believe that wearing glasses helps keep hands away from the face, which is recommended by epidemiologists around the world.
Hands off your face!
Contact lens wearers are more likely to touch their eyes and face than eyeglass wearers. It would seem that the exact opposite is true, but…
Contact lens wearers are more likely to reach their hand to their face, because wearing lenses increases the tendency to irritate and dry out the mucous membranes. Then we reflexively rub our eye, forgetting to wash our hands every time. Let’s also take into account the fact that if we remember to disinfect our hands with a special liquid containing sufficiently concentrated alcohol, this very ingredient should not be in the eye area! Disinfectant liquids can irritate the delicate mucous membrane, which in turn will make you rub your eye again and… so on and so forth.
Not only do we unnecessarily reach our hand to our face, exposing ourselves to the transmission of coronavirus, but we can also irritate the mucous membrane of the eye so effectively that we will have to go to an ophthalmologist – and in the current epidemic conditions, access to a doctor of this specialty is very difficult. Why? Because, like a dentist, he or she has to perform all medical activities right next to the patient’s face, which poses a huge risk of coronavirus transmission.
It is worth adding that scientists do not yet have enough data to confirm or deny that coronavirus can transmit through tears, and that tearing occurs whenever we have conjunctival inflammation.
Conjunctivitis one of the symptoms of coronavirus infection?
Conjunctivitis is increasingly mentioned among the symptoms that can herald a coronavirus infection. If, by not maintaining sufficient hygiene, we contribute to the fact that conjunctivitis gets us, we may miss and downplay the fact that it also has a completely different – much more serious cause. Wearing glasses and maintaining all hygienic standards, we are sure to catch alarming symptoms in time and react appropriately to the situation.
Reports from China and around the world show that about 1-3% of people with Covid-19 also had conjunctivitis. A variety of pathogens, including viruses, can very easily stick to the conjunctiva or to the contact lens that rests on the conjunctiva. However, don’t panic – not every eye irritation that manifests itself as redness means a coronavirus infection! The new coronavirus, also called SARS-CoV-2, is just one of many viruses that can cause conjunctivitis. Concern should therefore be aroused not by conjunctival inflammation alone, but when other Covid-19 symptoms appear alongside it, such as fever, muscle aches, fatigue, coughing or shortness of breath.
Eye in home quarantine
Let’s constantly remember that the social quarantine we are currently undergoing involves staying indoors, staring at the TV or computer/laptop/smartphone monitor for much longer, and this already puts us at risk of excessive mucous membrane dryness. So let’s use moisturizing drops and take care of computer hygiene.
We also need to keep in mind that with the arrival of spring, the plants that make us allergic may have already started to dust and our red eyes are nothing more than a symptom of allergies. In either case, an irritated eye will not tolerate contact lenses.
We have no evidence that coronavirus can enter our body directly through the mucous membrane of the eye. Theoretically, it is possible, so we should take all possible precautions. Doctors also stress that wearing glasses can provide a purely physical barrier against coronavirus, which can become airborne after an infected person sneezes or coughs.
As long as the coronavirus pandemic continues and we must maintain extremely high hygiene standards, let’s give up contact lenses for our own good. Let’s not touch our faces or rub our eyes.
And if we really have to reach for contact lenses, let’s remember to perfectly disinfect our hands before applying them and during removal.
