A four-year-old girl in the UAE was severely injured in the eye after she used a foot-operated hand sanitizer.
The child was rushed to Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, where doctors during treatment diagnosed her with a near-total corneal abrasion caused by the alcohol and alkaline chemical additives in the sanitizer.
According to Gulf News, the doctors evaluated her eye under anesthesia and placed a self-retaining amniotic membrane, a biological bandage to relieve the pain.
The girl’s mother said that people were unaware of the risks of the chemicals used in hand sanitizers, especially their impact on children.
She narrated that when the girl saw people around her use it in a public place, she ran and pressed the pedal of the dispenser.
She started screaming in pain and her parents immediately rinsed the girl’s eyes with water and took her home, while continuing to wash the affected eyes.
Though the abrasion has healed now, the cornea was still dry and hazy.
Dr. Brian Armstrong, a staff physician at Cleveland’s eye institute, said this was the first case at the hospital that required amniotic membrane placement. The doctors removed the amniotic membrane a week after it was placed.
Most hand sanitizers have a high concentration of alcohol which breaks down the surface of the cornea immediately, said Dr. Brian, adding that pediatric eye injuries from alcohol-based hand sanitizers have been on the rise around the world since the start of the pandemic.
The explosive rise in the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to rise in eye injuries among children, a survey published in JAMA Ophthalmology has highlighted.
Researchers point out that the number of accidental eye injuries to kids under age 18 had shot up sevenfold during a five-month period last year, compared to 2019.
