Thelazia callipaeda Ocular Infection

A 26-year-old female from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, presented with a complaint of foreign body sensation in her left eye for 5 days. She did not own an animal and had no history of contact with one. She recalled only a camping trip about 2 months ago. Examination of the eye by slit-lamp biomicroscopy revealed slight hyperemia in the conjunctiva of her left eye, and several semihyaline nematodes wriggled in the conjunctiva sac (Figure 1, Supplemental Video 1). There was no obvious secretion, conjunctiva papilla, or follicle. Two nematodes were taken out by swab and then submitted to the infectious disease department laboratory for analysis and identification. In the following week, four additional nematodes were removed from the conjunctiva fornix of her left eye by two scrupulous ophthalmologists. The worms were identified as Thelazia callipaeda.1 Each worm had a typical scalariform buccal cavity and conical tail2 (Figure 2).