The talk will be delivered by Fiona Henriquez, Professor of Parasitology, School of Health and Life Sciences, University of the West of Scotland.
Fiona has kindly provided a short precis of her talk:
Acanthamoeba keratitis is an emerging opportunistic
infection caused by the normally free-living protist, Acanthamoeba. Contact lens wear is a major risk factor and their
cases and cleaning solutions are vunerable to Acanthamoeba contamination, as this protist is found in every
environment, including tap water, swimming pools and air conditioning units.
Public and professional awareness is still limited and at UWS we are not only
working to understand Acanthamoeba
and develop new treatments and prevention measures, but also to engage with the
large multinational eye-care industry, Optician practitioners and
Ophthalmologists to reduce the risk of the development of microbial keratitis
and in particular, Acanthamoeba infections.
Interestingly, we are witnessing an emergence of other amoeba pathogens, in
particular an infection that is affecting our aquaculture industry, called
Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD), caused by Paramoeba.
At UWS we are translating our knowledge of Acanthamoeba
to Paramoeba in the effort to
support the aquaculture industry to prevent heavy economic losses due to this
infection.
There is also further information available here
Guests are welcome with suggested donation of £3.00.
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