Clean hands essential for contact-lens wearers

People who wear contact lenses should be especially careful that their hands are clean while putting or taking their contact lenses off, German optometrists advise.

"The biggest enemies of the contact lens wearer are the fingers," says Georg Eckert, spokesman for the German Optometrists Association in Dusseldorf.

Eckert says that the eye's surface may have a small scratch from the contact lens. Unwashed hands may contain many germs, which could then get through the surface scratch and cause infections and inflammation of the eyeball.

Women in particular should be careful about preventing makeup from infecting the eyeball, Eckert said. He advises people that, besides soap and water, they should clean their hands with a disinfectant. -- DPA