Contact Lens Care & Compliance

“You Only Have One Pair of Eyes, so Take Care of Them!”

BY MICHAEL A. WARD, MMSC, FAAO

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently promoted and launched a new campaign called Contact Lens Health Week, which took place Nov. 17 to 21, 2014. In case you missed it, the purpose of this annual campaign is to promote healthy contact lens wear. Over the course of many months, the CDC worked with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), eyecare providers, contact lens and product manufacturers, and academic partners to develop messages about the healthy wear and care of contact lenses. The industry, through the nonprofit Contact Lens Institute, generously supports this activity.

Highlights of This Year’s Campaign

This year’s campaign theme is “You only have one pair of eyes, so take care of them!” The target audience is contact lens wearers ages 18 to 22 years old—a group at increased risk of eye infections associated with contact lens wear.

The CDC created an educational toolkit of health promotion materials for partner organizations, contact lens wearers, healthcare providers, and others interested in promoting eye health. The site, www.cdc.gov/contactlenses/materials.html, offers free downloads of promotional materials such as infographics (example below), podcasts, facts pages, posters, mobile apps, and a social media library.

There is even a CDC detective-type iPad app game in which players “get clues and analyze data to solve the outbreak and save lives.”

Check out this site and take advantage of these educational materials to encourage healthy contact lens wear practices among your patients. CLS

For references, please visit www.clspectrum.com/references and click on document #229.

Mr. Ward is an instructor in ophthalmology at Emory University School of Medicine and Director, Emory Contact Lens Service. He is also a consultant or advisor to Alcon and B+L. You can reach him at mward@emory.edu.