• Eye Invader
Acanthamoeba infection of the cornea causes severe inflammation, intense pain and impaired vision, which is blinding if left untreated. Infection begins when the parasite is at its active feeding trophozoite stage and sticks to the corneal tissue before penetrating the lower stromal layer. The resulting opacity leads to less sharp vision and eventually blindness.
Even more worrying is that besides the painful progressive sight-threatening corneal disease, the parasite can cross the blood brain barrier and cause granulomatous amoebic encephalitis, a progressive disease of the central nervous system that often results in death.
Greaney was lucky – if you can put it that way – because she was able to receive treatment. After a week her eye was red, painful and bulged, “it looked like a huge red golf ball,” she said. Treatments included clamping her eye open, keeping her awake, scraping off layers of tissue and repeated eye drops.