FUNGI FROM NORMAL OUTER EYE

Samples from the eyelid margins and conjunctival sacs of both eyes of 158 people with no clinical evidence of ocular disease were cultured twice to determine the incidence and persistence of fungi. Fungi, predominantly yeasts, were obtained from 47 eyes of 35 individuals, 22 women and 13 men. Candida parapsilosis, the most common species isolated, occurred in 12 out of 47 eyes. Fungi in the healthy outer eye appeared to depend on random seeding from the environment and to be transient. In two cultures at a one-week interval of samples from all eyes, only three subjects had the same fungus in the same eye. Following alteration of environment of two of these three subjects, a third culture was negative for fungi. The introduction of high numbers of adventitious pathogenic fungi into the eye or in the surrounding region, by cosmetics or ophthalmic medications is potentially hazardous. © 1969.