Subject(s)
Bible , Keratoconjunctivitis/history , Medicine in the Arts , Animals , Birds/microbiology , Eye Infections/history , Eye Infections/therapy , History, 16th Century , History, 17th Century , Humans , Italy , Keratoconjunctivitis/pathology , Keratoconjunctivitis/therapy , Male , SuperinfectionABSTRACT
Hundreds of substances are used daily that can damage eyesight. People's eyes are open to accidental or intentional exposure during the production, transportation, use, and disposal of chemical preparations. Ensuring the safety of consumer products was born during the mid twentieth century in the aftermath of chemical warfare research, and was motivated by the hazards of unsafe cosmetics. Justified by an exigency for public protection, the Draize eye test became a governmentally endorsed method to evaluate the safety of materials meant for use in or around the eyes. The test involves a standardized protocol for instilling agents onto the cornea and conjunctiva of laboratory animals. A sum of ordinal-scale items of the outer eye gives an index of ocular morbidity. Advances in ocular toxicology are challenging the validity, precision, relevance, and need of the Draize eye test. Preclinical product-safety tests with rabbits and other mammals also raise ethical concerns of animal wellbeing. Some use the Draize test as a rallying point for how animals are treated in science and industry. A battery of cellular systems and computer models aim to reduce and ultimately to replace whole-animal testing. Molecular measures of ocular toxicity may eventually allow comprehensive screening in humans. The Draize eye test was created and refined for humanitarian reasons and has assuredly prevented harm. Its destiny is to be progressively supplanted as in vitro and clinical alternatives emerge for assessing irritancy of the ocular surface.
Subject(s)
Conjunctiva/drug effects , Cornea/drug effects , Drug Evaluation, Preclinical/methods , Irritants/toxicity , Keratoconjunctivitis/chemically induced , Toxicity Tests/methods , Animal Testing Alternatives , Animals , Consumer Product Safety , Drug Evaluation, Preclinical/history , History, 20th Century , Humans , Keratoconjunctivitis/history , Models, Biological , Toxicity Tests/history , United States , United States Food and Drug AdministrationABSTRACT
During the Napoleonic Wars from 1798-1815, severe epidemics of keratoconjunctivitis affected the military and civilian populations of Western Europe. This disease was known as the Egyptian ophthalmia because it was first described in troops stationed in Egypt. Most physicians believed this condition was not infectious, but caused by various climatological factors. John Vetch, a British physician, emphasized that this disease was spread by direct conveyance of pus from the diseased to the healthy eye. His insistence that the ophthalmia was contagious, and his suggestions for prevention and treatment were milestones in the history of ophthalmology.