Doctors who wear eyeglasses or contact lenses may be at enhanced risk of getting respiratory infections, according to data.
Reporting in a poster session and abstract at IDWeek 2016 in New Orleans, LA, Amanda Krosche, BS, of the Johns Hopkins University Hospital Epidemiology & Infection Control division and colleagues looked for correlations between corrective eyewear use and acute respiratory infections in health care workers.
The team tracked respiratory symptoms and took swabs whenever study participants felt an infection coming on.
The goal was to see if speculation that microbes might enter the body through the eyes, instead of the nose and mouth, was a valid hypothesis.
There were 1,386 participants who wear glasses, 145 who use contacts, and 576 who wear both. Controls were 1,234 people who do not wear corrective lenses.
The project covered 12 weeks in two respiratory virus seasons in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015. Participant worked at seven different facilities.
Though they found the proportion of positive swabs did not differ substantially across groups, the exception was rhinovirus/enterovirus.
