Doctors Discover Over 100 Mites On A Woman's Eyelash
Laundry days will no longer be procrastinated after everyone reads this story. Xu Dong, a 62-year-old Chinese woman, was admitted into the hospital after dealing with itchy, red eyes for two years.
According to the Daily Mail, the mother told doctors that she became use to the irritation and started to treat it with eye drops. Suddenly, things took a turn for the worse. Dong's eye drops were no longer working and her eyes started to become painful to open once the discharge dried.
Germaphobes Beware
This is where the story gets horrifying. Doctors reportedly found 100 mites living on Xu's eyelashes. Each of her eyelashes harbored up to 12 of the little critters. Believe it or not, eyelash mites are actually normal. Most people if not all, have some sort of mites living on their faces. However, they are never in this amount and should not cause irritation.
There are two types of mites that have an attraction to humans. They are Demodex folliculorum and Demodex brevis. Both live in our hair follicles and are able to survive in our secretions. In small amounts these mites are harmless. And honestly, too small to see or even notice. But in Dong's case, not so much!
In the report, Dong claimed that she didn't washed her pillowcase in about five years. She has been using the same pillowcase since 2012. The combination of poor hygiene and limited ventilation in her bedroom created the perfect breeding space for the little guys.
According to a Chinese news website, about ten mites were able to shack up on a single follicle of hair. Luckily, there's good news! Doctors were able to prescribe Dong with anti-mite treatment, which allowed her to make a full recovery.
Clean Laundry Is Hygiene
To some, laundry day might be a pain, but what's worse, getting up and washing those sheets or having an eyelash turn into an all-inclusive resort for bugs? Washing sheets and pillowcases once a week is the only way to avoid build up and fight against dangerous amounts of bacteria.
Be sure to wash pillowcases and sheets at a 130 to 150-degree Fahrenheit and throw them in a hot dryer cycle to help kill germs. A combination of heat, sweat, oil and dead skin cells can create a beautiful home for microscopic bugs to hang out.
Keep in mind, several showers, fancy sheets and cute bedding will not keep these little guys away. So stop being lazy and wash those pillowcases and sheets!
