There isn’t much that grosses me out. Should be fairly obvious given that I’ve been writing about parasites and all the deep, dark, moist caverns of the body they find themselves in. But if there’s one thing that does make me cringe or cower, it’s the idea of something - anything - invading my eyes.
I guess it has to do with the soft, moist, squishy tissue of our eye. You never realize how vulnerable an eye is until you cut one open I guess… (Don’t worry, it was just a cow eye for biology lab, in case you’re wondering…)
Like every part of our bodies, even our eyes aren’t safe from parasites. And one of the most successful human parasites, our beloved Toxoplasma gondii, can make a nice cozy nest in our eyes if it so wishes. But eye infection via toxoplasmosis is fairly rare, and most often occurs in immunocompromised individuals and babies by which the parasite crosses the placenta [1]. The recurring symptom here for toxoplasmosis eye infection and other eye infections is going to be blindness. It is not always the case, and usually has to do with the speed of diagnosis and treatment from when infection occurs.
There have been incidences of people going blind from wearing contact lenses due to the Acanthamoeba parasite. One such instance involved a college student who wore her contact lenses for six months without taking them out or cleaning them [2]. The aquatic amoeba went on to devour her retina. This could be easily avoided by ensuring hygienic practices regarding contact lenses. People, clean your lenses. You may save your sight. If you need some extra incentive, check out this video on Acanthamoeba in action.
Traveling over to Africa and South America for a moment, you may have come across onchocerciasis, or river blindness. (Let’s play guess the result of an untreated illness.) The filarial worm disease is considered one of the neglected tropical diseases, and is contracted via blackflies [3]. The worm can be found in every tissue of the eye except for the lens (that hard marble-like thing in the middle of your squishy eye). So if you find yourself traveling to Africa or South America, make sure you have insect repellent. Definitely want to keep those blackflies away.
If you aren’t worried about blackflies and potential onchocerciasis, how about we look in your backyard. If you have a dog or cat, your very pet may be carrying a species of Toxocara which can swim up into your eye if it ends up inside you, although it usually prefers lungs and intestines. But no worries, if anything, it tends to infect children, so you should be fine [4]. As with the above parasites, again, if Toxocara ends up in your eye, blindness can result.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of eye parasites as even malaria or leishmaniasis can end up in your eye as well. Unfortunately, our eyes are very vulnerable to come under attack from parasites, and unlike some of the good that some helminths (parasitic worms) can provide with new autoimmune treatments, eye parasites are no good and all bad. There is no surefire way to prevent any of the above parasites (unless you want to become the next bubble boy), and prevention is the way to go. If you’re in an area where any parasites are endemic, wear insect repellent and practice good hygiene.
You may find it tedious, but you never know, you may be saving your sight.
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