EYE HEALTH EDUCATION
Updated: 2 days ago
A member asked me to share articles on how Lyme and co-infections can affect the eyes and vision, so I gathered the most current information from sources I trust. Blurry vision, floaters, light sensitivity and dry, irritated eyes come up often in our groups. This post explains what may be behind them and when to get help right away.
Short on time or energy? A quick-view graphic with the key points is at the bottom of this post.
EYE HEALTH - POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
WHAT ILADS AND ILADEF SAY
- ILADEF lists problems with vision and hearing among the symptoms Lyme can cause once it spreads beyond the skin (updated 2026).
- ILADS's guide for providers links Bartonella with eye disorders, along with fever, swollen lymph nodes and problems in the heart and brain (updated 2026).
- ILADEF notes that tularemia, another tick-borne infection, commonly affects the eyes (2024).
- ILADS hosted a patient webinar with Dr. William Padula, an optometrist who specializes in vision rehabilitation, on how Lyme and tick-borne diseases can affect visual processing, balance, posture, learning and memory (2021). He also spoke at the ILADS conferences in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
COMMON EYE SYMPTOMS
- A Global Lyme Alliance writer lists double or blurry vision, floaters, pink eye (conjunctivitis), inflammation in different parts of the eye, light sensitivity, dry eye, "static" in your vision, and a blind spot or loss of vision (2022).
- Dr. Daniel Cameron, a past ILADS president, explains that eye problems in Lyme are uncommon but well documented, and they can affect nearly every part of the eye. The symptoms he says patients notice most include blurry vision, red eyes, light sensitivity, eye pain, floaters, double vision, extra tearing and swelling around the eyes (updated 2026).
- Bay Area Lyme Foundation lists problems with vision, memory and hearing in late-stage Lyme (2025).
- Dr. Richard Horowitz lists light and sound sensitivity among the Lyme symptoms that can improve with treatment or flare during a Herxheimer reaction (2024).
- Dr. Bill Rawls shares that a blurry right eye was one of the ways he could tell he was relapsing (2022).
LYME AND THE EYE
- A 2026 review pulled together 21 studies of 859 people with Lyme who had eye findings. Double vision and eyes not lining up (strabismus) were reported most, in about half, though only 5 studies looked at them. Findings in the front of the eye, like pink eye, an inflamed cornea (keratitis) and cataracts, showed up in about 24%. Inflammation in the back of the eye, such as uveitis and retinitis, showed up in about 20%. A palsy of the third cranial nerve, which helps move the eye, was found in about 19%, and optic nerve findings in about 11%. The researchers say eye findings like these should raise suspicion of Lyme, even before blood tests confirm it.
- In a 2022 review from Uppsala University in Sweden, researchers found Lyme bacteria inside the eye of a patient with uveitis using a PCR test, and their review supports that Borrelia can infect the eye. They add that when blood tests are negative, testing a sample from the eye can be reasonable.
- Optic neuritis means the optic nerve is inflamed. It can bring blurred vision, vision loss and eye pain (Global Lyme Alliance, 2022). With Lyme it appears to be rare, and what's known comes from case reports (Geisinger review, 2022).
- A Global Lyme Alliance article shares a case from Columbia University's Dr. Brian Fallon and Dr. Jennifer Sotsky about an 8-year-old boy whose vision dropped because of swollen optic nerves. He tested positive for Lyme, and after treatment his vision came back almost to normal (2022).
VISION AND THE BRAIN
- Dr. Padula explains that our eyes work like cameras, but the brain does the seeing. One part of our vision picks up detail, and another part maps the space around us and works with our balance. Inflammation from Lyme-related disease can throw the two out of balance (2023).
- Signs he lists include blurry vision that changes, losing your place when reading, trouble focusing up close, dizziness, drifting when you walk, feeling like you're drifting toward one side of the road while driving, feeling overwhelmed in busy places, bumping into things, and sensitivity to light and glare (2023).
- He uses a brain-wave vision test called a VEP (visual evoked potential) and says abnormal results strongly point to tick-borne disease. He and his colleagues also describe a hazy white ring around the optic nerve that they link to tick-borne infections (2021 and 2023).
- He says this kind of vision testing should be done along with care from the doctor treating your tick-borne infection, not in place of it (2023).
- Johns Hopkins researchers found that reduced contrast sensitivity (trouble seeing faint or low-contrast details) came with 2.6 times the odds of having post-treatment Lyme, compared with healthy people. Sharpness of distance vision was normal in both groups. Contrast sensitivity loss was close to being linked with nerve and thinking problems, and the researchers think it may be a sign of how severe the illness is (2021).
BARTONELLA
- Dr. Horowitz names severe eye problems as one of the clues for Bartonella. He explains that Bartonella can get into the nervous system and inflame the eyes, including pink eye, uveitis, optic neuritis, and blockages in the blood vessels of the eye (2025).
- Dr. Rosalie Greenberg, who serves on the ILADS board, notes that the eyes, the heart and the nervous system may all be affected by Bartonella (2022).
- LymeDisease.org lists blurred vision among the common neurological symptoms of Bartonella (2022).
- Neuroretinitis is swelling where the optic nerve meets the retina, with a star-shaped pattern in the center of the retina (the macula). A 2025 review names cat scratch disease (from Bartonella henselae) as its most common cause.
- NC State researchers, including Dr. Edward Breitschwerdt and Dr. Ricardo Maggi, include neuroretinitis among the nerve-related conditions linked to Bartonella. It is most often tied to Bartonella henselae, but other species have been found too (2024).
- Galaxy Diagnostics explains that Bartonella can reach any part of the eye. Neuroretinitis usually brings sudden vision loss, and treatment usually, but not always, brings vision back, which can take months. Uveitis can cause redness, light sensitivity, pain and floaters. They also describe a woman whose Bartonella symptoms lasted over five years, among them ongoing pink eye, until antibiotics cleared them (2019).
- In a 2025 study of 14 people with eye problems from Bartonella henselae, the optic nerve was swollen in 90% of the eyes. Vision of about 20/40 or better was seen in 40% of eyes before treatment and 85% after treatment. Everyone received antibiotics, and most also received steroids.
BABESIA AND OTHER INFECTIONS
- Dr. Rawls notes that many microbes besides Lyme like to settle in the eye, including Bartonella and Toxoplasma, because the eye can shield them from the immune system (2022).
- A Global Lyme Alliance writer felt her Babesia pain as a searing migraine on one side of her head, with nausea and light sensitivity (2019).
MAST CELLS (MCAS) AND HISTAMINE
- Vision changes, including double vision, are among the MCAS symptoms the doctors I follow talk about most.
- In a 2025 survey of 553 people with MCAS and 558 people without it, Dr. Leonard Weinstock, Dr. Lawrence Afrin, Dr. Tania Dempsey and colleagues found light sensitivity in 66.3% of women with MCAS, compared with 13.5% of women without it. For men, it was 42.1% compared with 2.8%.
- When your eyes meet an allergy trigger, your body releases histamine, and your eyes can quickly turn red, itchy and watery. Mold is one of the common triggers (MedlinePlus, 2024).
POTS AND NERVES
- PoTS UK lists vision problems among the symptoms of POTS, such as blurry vision, glare or tunnel vision (updated 2026).
- In a small 2019 study published in PLOS ONE, 10 people with lingering Lyme symptoms after treatment all showed signs of small fiber neuropathy on skin biopsies, and dry mouth or dry eyes were among their common symptoms.
MOLD
- A 2026 study from the University of New South Wales found lower contrast sensitivity in people exposed to biotoxins like mold, compared with people who weren't, when tested on digital contrast tests.
FLOATERS
- Floaters are specks, dots or threads that drift across your vision. They are bits of debris floating in the gel inside the eye. Most adults have a few, and most of the time they are harmless (MedlinePlus, 2025).
- Dr. Cameron and the Global Lyme Alliance both list floaters among the eye symptoms seen with Lyme (2026 and 2022).
WHEN TO GET HELP RIGHT AWAY
Please see an eye doctor or go to the ER right away for a sudden increase in floaters, floaters with flashes of light, a shadow or dark curtain coming across your sight, sudden changes in your sight such as wavy lines or vision loss, pain when you look at light, a very red or painful eye, a red eye with a severe headache and feeling sick, or any eye injury (MedlinePlus, 2025, and NHS, 2023 and 2025). For any eye symptom, tell your Lyme-literate doctor and see an eye doctor to rule out other causes.
MY EXPERIENCE
I keep up with yearly eye exams. I have had various issues over the years.
MORE RESEARCH WITH MIXED RESULTS
- Optic neuritis: a 2024 review from Mass General and Harvard notes that Lyme can affect almost any cranial nerve, but optic neuritis with Lyme is debated and likely overdiagnosed, though convincing cases do exist.
- Contrast tests for mold: in the same 2026 University of New South Wales study, the handheld Shoemaker contrast card did not tell the exposed and unexposed groups apart, while the digital tests did. My CIRS post also shares that this test isn't perfect and can be affected by Lyme and mercury.
RELATED POSTS
HEAD PAIN AND MIGRAINES EDUCATION
POTS / DYSAUTONOMIA EDUCATION
SUN SENSITIVITY - CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS
SOURCES
ILADEF, Lyme Disease FAQ (updated 2026)
ILADS, Lyme Disease Basics for Providers (updated 2026)
ILADEF, Tick-Borne Diseases Other Than Lyme (2024)
ILADS, Dr. William Padula webinar (2021, older source, still worth reading)
ILADS conference speakers, Dr. William Padula (2022, 2023 and 2024)
Global Lyme Alliance, Lyme Disease and the Eyes (2022)
Dr. Daniel Cameron, Eye Problems in Lyme Disease (updated 2026)
Bay Area Lyme Foundation, Symptoms of Lyme Disease handout (2025)
Dr. Richard Horowitz, Medical Detective, LymeDisease.org (2024 and 2025)
Dr. Bill Rawls, Can Lyme Disease Affect the Eyes? (2022)
Lyme eye findings review (2026)
Uppsala University, Borrelia in the eye review (2022)
Geisinger, Lyme optic neuritis review (2022)
Dr. William Padula, LymeDisease.org (2023)
Dorothy Kupcha Leland, Touched by Lyme, with Dr. William Padula, LymeDisease.org (2021, older source, still worth reading)
Johns Hopkins, contrast sensitivity study (2021, older source, still worth reading)
Dr. Rosalie Greenberg, Global Lyme Alliance (2022)
LymeDisease.org, Bartonella (2022)
Neuroretinitis review (2025)
NC State, Neurobartonelloses review (2024)
Galaxy Diagnostics, Bartonella and the eyes (2019, older source, still worth reading)
Bartonella henselae eye study (2025)
Global Lyme Alliance, Not All Headaches Are Alike (2019, older source, still worth reading)
Weinstock, Afrin, Dempsey and others, MCAS study (2025)
MedlinePlus, Allergic conjunctivitis (2024)
PoTS UK, Symptoms (updated 2026)
Novak and others, small fiber neuropathy after Lyme, PLOS ONE (2019, older source, still worth reading)
University of New South Wales, contrast sensitivity and biotoxins study (2026)
MedlinePlus, Eye floaters (2025)
NHS, Dry eyes (2025)
NHS, Floaters and flashes in the eyes (2023)
Mass General and Harvard, Lyme cranial nerve review (2024)
Disclaimer: Rise Above Lyme makes no claims about any possible benefit of using any product mentioned within this site. Always consult with your doctor before adding anything. The information shared is based on personal experience, years of accumulated researched resources from Lyme Literate doctors and polls conducted within Lyme groups from actual patient experience using these solution ideas.
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