News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A student's eyeballs were DEVOURED by a bug - after she failed to clean her disposable contact lenses for more than six months.

Doctors said 23-year-old Lian Kao's case is an extreme lesson in the importance of basic hygiene.

Under pressure because of her university studies, the young woman failed to take ever contact lenses and wash them once for half a year.

When she eventually went to hospital, medics were horrified when they removed the contact lenses to find that the surface of the girl's eyes had literally been eaten by a single-cell amoeba.

The bug had been able to breed in the perfect conditions that existed between the contact lens and the eye.

Lian Kao has been left blinded as a result.

Doctor Wu Jian-liang, said: "Contact lens wearers are a high-risk group that can easily be exposed to eye diseases.

"A shortage of oxygen can destroy the surface of the epithelial tissue, creating tiny wounds into which the bacteria can easily infect, spreading to the rest of the eye and providing a perfect breeding ground.

"The girl should have thrown the contact lenses away after a month but instead she overused them and has now permanently damaged her corneas."

He said that she had been diagnosed with acanthamoeba keratitis, which although rare was always more common in the summer.

Dr Jian-liang revealed the girl's case to shock other contact lens wearers into being more careful about hygiene.