Correspondence (letter to the editor): Poor-Quality Data

The authors report in their article that in 2010, the Robert Koch-Institute (RKI) registered an increase in notified adenovirus infections of 300% compared with previous years. They correctly point out that this is but the tip of an iceberg.

A survey conducted at regional continuing medical educational events found that none of the ophthalmologists present had ever notified an adenovirus infection to the health authorities or had tried to confirm the virus by using a test. The health insurers do not cover the costs of the available rapid test, and the test result is hardly of any therapeutic relevance (any therapeutic recommendations are off-label only). Notifications would therefore come mainly from eye hospitals and federal states where a suspected diagnosis is notifiable.

The increase derived from the RKI data (1) is even less credible when one looks further back into the past. For 2005, 525 cases of infection were notified; for 2006, 138 cases; for 2007, 375 cases; and for 2008, 168 cases. The increase thus obviously relates only to the 169 cases notified in 2009 compared with the 455 cases notified in 2010.

To demand in view of these rather poor data that, because of possible transmission by contaminated or insufficiently disinfected contact lenses, only proven virucidal disinfectants for fitted lenses should be permitted—which is impossible, because of a lack of suitable or approved solutions—seems rather daring (3). However, this is exactly what the responsible authority in Baden-Württemberg has imposed on ophthalmological practices, citing recommendations from the RKI (2). Whether this impractical obligation, and its monitoring, is also directed at ophthalmological opticians, who fit and distribute more than half of all contact lenses, is not known.