Recent increasing awareness and interest in Demodex blepharitis readily apparent: half-year recap

Demodex blepharitis is among the most common yet historically underrecognized conditions affecting the eyelid margin, caused by overpopulation of the human commensal mites Demodex folliculorum and Demodex brevis within eyelash follicles and adjacent meibomian and sebaceous glands,¹ according to William Trattler, MD, and colleagues. Once regarded as a rare curiosity, mounting clinical evidence indicates that it is highly widespread: in a multicenter US study of 1,032 patients presenting to eye care clinics for any reason, 57.7% had collarettes, the pathognomonic sign of Demodex blepharitis. That datapoint corresponds to an estimated 25 million affected individuals in the US alone.1,2