14 May 2026
A Northern Territory Football League player has described her experience of an eye infection caused by a rare fungal parasite following an outbreak that affected more than 100 players in Darwin.
The outbreak of microsporidial keratoconjunctivitis, which is believed to have been caused by mud splashing into players’ eyes, resulted in the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) issuing a public health alert in March.
Testing by the CDC confirmed the source of the outbreak to be Vittaforma corneae, a microsporidia species.
Darwin women’s premier league player, Jemma Iacono, 33, woke up with a red, sore and itchy right eye in March, days after playing in the women’s premier league.
She sought treatment from Tropic Optics optometrist, Lance Chin Quan, after she was prescribed chloramphenicol by her GP but failed to see any improvement.
“I heard word around town – as it is quite a small community here – that people were getting these really bad eye infections,” Iacono told OT.
Iacono was able to get a same-day appointment with Chin Quan who prescribed her with Maxidex and Ciloxan eye drops.
“He had told me he had seen a lot of football players by that stage,” she said.
Iacono told OT that as the infection progressed she developed a series of white dots in her right eye.
“The pain was unbearable,” she said.
“It was like there was a stick in my eye – it was stinging and really sensitive to light,” Iacono shared.
The St Mary’s player said that the eye condition began to affect her mental health.
“I was pretty upset in the mornings because I would wake up hoping that it had got better, only to find that it had become worse overnight,” Iacono said.
I was pretty upset in the mornings because I would wake up hoping that it had got better, only to find that it had become worse overnight
Iacono’s symptoms rapidly improved after she began taking the antifungal eye drops, Voriconazole.
She experienced a feeling of relief after Chin Quan told her that the ulcers on her cornea were beginning to improve.
“I remember when he showed me my eye, I was so happy that I started crying,” Iacono said.
Iacono told OT that she was grateful for the approach taken by Chin Quan during the outbreak.
“Even when I was feeling like I was having a mental breakdown, he would do his best to get me in and let me know that it was going to be okay,” she said.
“He did everything he could for the football players – to accommodate us and fit us in,” Iacono shared.
During the 13 years Iacono has played Australian rules football within Darwin, Iacono has not seen anything like the current outbreak.
“I’ve experienced many wet seasons but this was actually quite scary,” she said.
While the season has now finished, Iacono said the experience would shape her approach going forward.
“I will definitely be taking precautions, especially if it's going to be really rainy and muddy,” she said.
“I will be telling my team and my club that you need to avoid getting any mud in your eyes and wash it out straight away,” Iacono added.
Although Iacono’s symptoms have resolved, two months after her eye infection she is continuing to take daily antifungal and steroid eye drops.
She told OT that she was hesitant to completely stop taking eye drops out of fear that her symptoms would reoccur.
“Some people have come off their eye drops and it has flared back up,” Iacono said.
Chin Quan, who was personally managing more than 40 patients at the beginning of April, told OT that the sports fields had become less muddy with the beginning of the dry season in Darwin.
“Most patients have gotten past the worst of it and their vision – in most cases – has returned to normal,” he said.
He observed that many patients experienced a second wave of lesions after the initial episode settled.
“These lesions are fewer and smaller. The inflammatory response is milder,” Chin Quan said.
Inside a mysterious eye infection outbreak among Darwin AFL players
Is it a viral infection or linked to the pitch itself? OT reports on a spate of keratoconjunctivitis cases that has spread to 71 players
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