With nearly half of all Hong Kong children under the age of 12 suffering from short-sightedness, many parents have opted for “OK” contact lenses — a type of hard contact lense that supposedly reduces the severity of near-sightedness.
However, a Chinese University Ophthalmology report found that 40 percent of children admitted into the hospital for keratitis got the infection from OK contact lenses. After treatment, the children will only recover 70 percent of their vision on average.
OK contact lenses work by flattening the front of the corneas to lessen myopia, but this is only a temporary effect achieved by wearing the contact lenses overnight and only lasts during the day. If a person stops wearing the lenses, the myopia will restore to its former severity. OK contact lenses wearers increase their risk of cornea inflammation by 50 percent, according to Apple Daily.
