Hyderabad study flags Acanthamoeba eye infection risk
HYDERABAD: Swimming in contaminated water bodies and cleaning contact lenses with tap water can cause a severe eye infection due to Acanthamoeba, a protozoan, according to a recent study by the LV Prasad Eye Institute.
The organism enters the eye through polluted water or environmental exposure and causes Acanthamoeba keratitis, a serious infection that damages the cornea and can lead to vision loss. It can also affect the brain, skin and facial sinuses.
Inflammation drives severity, not organism count
Researchers said the severity of the disease depends not on the number of microbes but on inflammation triggered by the body’s immune response. They advised that treatment should control both infection and inflammation.
The findings were published in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Vision Science.
Study examines 23 corneal samples over 12 years
A team led by doctors Sohini Mandal and Soumya Suchita analysed corneal samples from 23 patients diagnosed with Acanthamoeba keratitis over 12 years. The group included 15 men and eight women.
About one-third of the patients contracted the infection from contaminated water in ponds and swimming pools, or from exposure to plants and soil. In more than half the cases, the organism appeared in a drug-resistant cyst form.
Researchers said the organism exists in two forms. Initially, it spreads in the trophozoite stage by feeding on tissue. When deprived of nutrients or exposed to treatment, it transforms into a cyst, forming a tough outer layer that makes treatment ineffective and leads to recurrence.
In 17 of the 23 cases, there was no link between the severity of corneal damage and the number of organisms present. Even after corneal transplants, treatment failed in 65 per cent of patients within a year, highlighting the disease’s severity.
