In June 1999, the Department of Health asked the optical professions to stop the clinically established procedure of using trial contact lenses on more than one patient. This was as a result of a warning by the Government's Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) of 'a remote theoretical risk' of transmitting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) from patient to patient via contact lenses. Later that year, SEAC also turned its attention to ophthalmic devices that come into contact with the eye and advised that these too should be confined, wherever practicable, to single patient use.
There are no known cases of transmission of vCJD by contact lenses or ophthalmic devices and most contact lenses are, in any case, only for use on one patient. Nevertheless any risk has to be taken seriously and even though the risk has been described as remote and theoretical, the College and its equivalent organisation for dispensing opticians have published advice for their members on what to do on those occasions when it might be clinically necessary to use a contact lens or ophthalmic device on more than one person. That advice can be found in the Guidance section on the College's website. The advice describes a simple method of making these lenses or devices safe for use on another person. Research studies have shown that this method destroys the vCJD agent and SEAC recognised the method as part of best decontamination procedures where items are to be re-used, in a Press Statement issued in July 2001.
There are very rare occasions when a device may not be suitable for this decontamination method and there is no disposable alternative. In these cases the optometrist will discuss the benefits and risks of using the device with the patient, to enable the patient to give informed consent for its use.
There are no known cases of transmission of vCJD by contact lenses or ophthalmic devices and most contact lenses are, in any case, only for use on one patient. Nevertheless any risk has to be taken seriously and even though the risk has been described as remote and theoretical, the College and its equivalent organisation for dispensing opticians have published advice for their members on what to do on those occasions when it might be clinically necessary to use a contact lens or ophthalmic device on more than one person. That advice can be found in the Guidance section on the College's website. The advice describes a simple method of making these lenses or devices safe for use on another person. Research studies have shown that this method destroys the vCJD agent and SEAC recognised the method as part of best decontamination procedures where items are to be re-used, in a Press Statement issued in July 2001.
There are very rare occasions when a device may not be suitable for this decontamination method and there is no disposable alternative. In these cases the optometrist will discuss the benefits and risks of using the device with the patient, to enable the patient to give informed consent for its use.