Organisms Implicated in Contact Lens-Related Bacterial Keratitis - Essay Example

The disease has been associated with the use of contact lenses amongst most of the patients it affects. Several microorganisms tend to cause keratitis and this will range from bacteria, fungi, viruses as well as acanthamoeba. Bacterial microorganisms affect most of the patients who have keratitis.

Common bacterial groups that lead to bacterial keratitis include the micrococcal, streptococcal species, the gram negatives, especially pseudomonas species, and Enterobacteriaceae. Pseudomonas is the leading microorganism in causing bacterial keratitis. The fungal infections will mostly arise from the Aspergillus group. Viral keratitis caused by the viral group of microorganisms will include those resulting from herpes simplex and herpes zoster viruses (Sadia et al, 2010). Introduction The most profound cause of ocular morbidity that leads to blindness is corneal infection.

With the advent of the use of contact lenses in the 1980s, the population affected by ulcerative keratitis has steadily been on the increase. This is because of the complications that have arisen due to the use of contact lenses. This has been mainly attributed to the care as well as the hygiene standards that the patients using contact lenses can exhibit. The contact lenses also tend to induce hypoxia, increase corneal temperatures, and decrease tear flow over the corneal surfaces.

The contact lenses need regular cleaning and constant care to be put in place by those using them, poor habits will predispose one to keratitis. Most people also tend to overlook the replacement of the contact lenses which should be done so every three months irrespective of how much care or cleaning is done to them and hence the extended wear puts them at risk of getting infected. Poor care of the contact lenses tends to predispose one to acanthamoeba which will often lead to bacterial keratitis among those using the contact lenses which have already been contaminated.

This makes pathological microorganisms to be the leading cause of keratitis. The most common microorganisms will include bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites. Keratitis could also result from trauma which causes alteration to the corneal surface and hence predisposing one to infections of the cornea (Sadia et al, 2010). Bacterial keratitis is a rapidly progressing disease that affects the cornea of the eye. The disease tends to bring about pain, a progressive reduction in vision, and sensitivity to light with some discharge from the eye.

Bacterial keratitis will also be characterized by the inflammation of the eye that has been affected by it. If left untreated it could result in blindness due to it having a rapid progression. Bacteria are the microorganism commonly responsible for the causation of this infection. The common bacteria types leading to this infection will include micrococcal, streptococcus species, pseudomonas species, and Enterobacteriaceae. There are two types of keratitis, this is superficial keratitis which affects the superficial layers of the cornea, and deep keratitis which normally affects the deep layers of the cornea.

The superficial keratitis does not leave scars on the cornea while deep keratitis normally would lead to scar formation on the cornea once the healing process has been completed. The formation of the scars is what impairs vision if it is on or near the visual axis (American Academy of Ophthalmology, 2011).