US experts blame contact-lens solution for infections

AFP, August, 2006

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US disease experts singled out a contact-lens solution made by Bausch and Lomb as being responsible for more than 100 serious eye infections.

But the experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ruled out faults in Bausch and Lomb's manufacturing process for injecting the fungal condition, Fusarium keratitis, into the solutions.

In April, the company yanked its best-selling ReNu with MoistureLoc solution from sale worldwide after numerous contact-lens wearers were infected with the condition, a painful inflammation of the cornea that can lead to blindness.

As of June 30, the CDC researchers had identified 164 confirmed cases of Fusarium keratitis infection across the United States. Of the total, 55 patients needed corneal transplants.

Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the experts said victims were about 20 times more likely than control patients to have used ReNu with ...