 BSc PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of the Institute for Eye Research
Professor Mark Willcox is one of the most respected researchers in the field of eye health, applauded for his innovation and contribution to vision. There are few who can claim to know as much about infection as Mark Willcox. He is a specialist in the areas of ocular inflammation and microbiology and is internationally renowned for his steerage of basic research at the Institute for Eye Research, his success through Vision CRC and his industry leadership.
Mark Willcox is Professor of the School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of New South Wales and an Executive Director of the Vision CRC.
Following the completion of his PhD at Manchester University, he took up a fellowship in Australia at the Institute of Dental Research. In 1993, Prof Willcox joined the School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of New South Wales and the Cooperative Research Centre for Eye Research and Technology, the forerunner to the Vision CRC. He has published over 150 refereed papers.
Among many positions he currently holds, Prof Willcox is a member of the Governing Board of Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society and of the Organising Committee of the International Society for Contact Lens Research.
Abstract
Contact lens wear is an extremely safe and effective form of vision correction. However, occasionally adverse responses do occur. Microbial contamination of contact lenses is associated with infection. Prevention will reduce the incidence of infection.
Corneal infection is most commonly caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa when contact lenses are worn. Other Gram-negative bacteria or staphylococci and streptococci can also cause this disease. Infection of the cornea by the protozoan Acanthamoeba is almost always associated with contact lens wear.
The microbes that initiate infection most likely come from the environment, including from the domestic water supply and the paraphernalia associated with contact lens storage and disinfection. Indeed, epidemiology studies have shown that people who do not care for their lenses or lens storage cases appropriately are much more likely to succumb to infection.
We are investigating ways of improving compliance with hygiene in wearers, and novel ways to combat colonisation of lenses by the pathogens. We have shown there are several strategies for preventing adhesion and/or growth of microbes on contact lens surfaces. These include using silver, selenium, cationic peptides and fimbrolides in or on a lens. These strategies have proved to be safe for wear, and are ready for longer term clinical trials designed to show their effectiveness.
Contact lenses need to be stored in a disinfecting solution. We are currently testing and designing disinfecting solutions that can combat the range of microbes that may colonise lenses, and improving on the disinfecting ability of currently available solutions.
The lens storage case is also a vehicle for microbes to colonise lenses. Some companies have now released silver impregnated cases that are designed to reduce colonisation by microbes. We have tested these in the laboratory and clinic and shown they can be
very successful.
Our goal is to reduce the incidence to that associated with the safest form of lens wear. |
