Saturday, July 2, 2022
SCIENMAG: Latest Science and Health News
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag - Latest science news from science magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home SCIENCE NEWS Infectious Emerging Diseases

Do eyeglasses help keep coronavirus out? Johns Hopkins expert says more evidence needed

October 6, 2020
in Infectious Emerging Diseases
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

During the current pandemic, we’ve all been advised to protect ourselves from infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 by masking, physical distancing and frequent hand-washing. In the Sept. 17 issue of JAMA Ophthalmology, a research team in China suggests that a fourth defensive measure also might be helpful: eye protection.

However, according to an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins Medicine, the team’s findings don’t yet mean everyone should don a pair of Clark Kent spectacles to enhance their “superpowers” during a coronavirus attack.

In their paper, published online Sept. 16, Weibiao Zeng, M.S., at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, and colleagues at three other Chinese medical institutions describe a retrospective study of 276 people in China’s Hubei Province who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus at the beginning of the pandemic. The researchers found that the proportion of patients who wore eyeglasses more than eight hours per day was significantly lower than in the general population.

From these data, the researchers claim that wearing eyeglasses more than a third of the day may provide some protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection, and that eyeglasses may act as a partial barrier to help keep people from touching their eyes.

“The findings, although intriguing, should not be considered as conclusive proof that the general public should begin wearing face shields, goggles or other ocular personal protective equipment — along with wearing masks and not touching their eyes — to obtain any substantial protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection,” says Lisa Maragakis, M.D., M.P.H., senior director of infection prevention at the Johns Hopkins Health System, associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and author of a commentary on the study that appears in the same issue of JAMA Ophthalmology.

Maragakis says there are several reasons for her caution.

“The study looks at a time very early in the pandemic before universal masking and physical distancing became common prevention practices. There may be confounding variables or an alternate explanation for the apparent protective effect of eyeglasses, and the data on the general population — against which the eyeglasses-wearing habits of the study patients are compared — were collected years ago in a different region of China,” she explains.

However, Maragakis says more studies — using data from both people who previously had COVID-19 and from patients newly diagnosed with the disease — would be valuable to confirm the study’s findings and to better define any benefit for the general public by adding eye protection as a defensive practice.

Maragakis is available to discuss this topic with the media.

###

Media Contact
Michael Newman
[email protected]

Tags: Infectious/Emerging DiseasesMedicine/Health
Share25Tweet16Share4ShareSendShare
  • Lead author Alison Towner with the carcass of a Great White Shark, washed up on shore following an Orca attack. ©Marine Dynamics/ Dyer Island Conservation Trust. Image by Hennie Otto

    The pair of Orcas deterring Great White Sharks – by ripping open their torsos for livers

    73 shares
    Share 29 Tweet 18
  • COVID-19 fattens up our body’s cells to fuel its viral takeover

    87 shares
    Share 35 Tweet 22
  • nTIDE May 2022 COVID Update: Uncertainty about inflation tempers good news for people with disabilities

    91 shares
    Share 36 Tweet 23
  • Wayne State and Great Lakes Water Authority to create workforce and laboratory center of the future

    66 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 17
  • Ovarian cancer in the fatty omentum: Metabolic enzyme’s key role in tumor metastasis

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • A closer look into the emergence of antibiotic resistance in bioaerosols and its monitoring

    69 shares
    Share 28 Tweet 17
ADVERTISEMENT

About us

We bring you the latest science news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Latest NEWS

nTIDE May 2022 COVID Update: Uncertainty about inflation tempers good news for people with disabilities

COVID-19 fattens up our body’s cells to fuel its viral takeover

Famous Sterkfontein Caves deposit 1 million years older than previously thought

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 190 other subscribers

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Posting....