Americans visit doctors nearly 1 million times annually for eye infections

Americans make nearly 1 million doctor visits for eye infections annually — causing an estimated $175 million in direct health care costs, according to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.The CDC analyzed national ambulatory care and ED databases to evaluate the incidence of keratitis in the United States. It found that an estimated 930,000 doctor’s office and outpatient clinic visits and 58,000 ED visits for keratitis or contact lens disorders occurred annually. Moreover, 76.5% of keratitis visits were associated with antimicrobial prescriptions, according to the MMWR.