Contact lens wearers note: Your eyes may get more infections because their microbiomes changed

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-05/nlmc-clw052715.php

Public Release: 31-May-2015
NYU Langone Medical Center / New York University School of Medicine

Using high-precision genetic tests to differentiate the thousands of bacteria that make up the human microbiome, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center suggest that they have found a possible -- and potentially surprising -- root cause of the increased frequency of certain eye infections among contact lens wearers.

In a study report on their work to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology on May 31 in New Orleans, NYU Langone researchers say they have identified a diverse set of microorganisms in the eyes of daily contact lens wearers that more closely resembles the group of microorganisms of their eyelid skin than the bacterial grouping typically found in the eyes of non-wearers.

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