Daily Archives: February 2, 2012

Eye specialist and health officers are worried due to an outbreak of a rare eye infection which has forced the manufacturing company of a contact lens solution to recall one of its products this week. AMO has decided to pull the product, and gave assurance to the people that no other product was affected. The current outbreak shows resemblance with one last year that was found to be associated to a different lens solution and a different microbe. In both cases, the cornea is found to be at risk. But the reason behind this outbreak is still not known. “It is beyond comprehension,” mentioned Dr. Dan B. Jones, the chairman of ophthalmology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who found a case of acanthamoeba keratitis, which is considered to be the culprit behind this recent outbreak. Acanthamoeba keratitis is caused by a parasite. It is very difficult to detect and sometimes it is very tough to treat. Early diagnosis can protect the eyes. An alert is issued by the U.S. CDC, which state that it had found 138 confirmed cases. Users of Complete MoisturePlus solution are at higher risk of getting the infection compared to those people who do not use it. An outbreak of fusarium keratitis was reported last year, which was caused by a fungus, and 164 patients were found to be involved in the outbreak. This was associated to ReNu with MoistureLoc manufactured by Bausch & Lomb. But why and how this product caused the problem is not known yet. CDC’s epidemiologist’s have blamed –- the AMO for this outbreak. AMO said there was no proof to make a statement that its product was contaminated and but they took this action as a precaution. Officials have suggested the consumers not to use this solution and throw all the used and unopened solution bottles and start using some other products. They have also suggested the consumers to throw their current contact lenses and the lens storage cases as they may contain the parasite. An official also said that, those people who have used the product should visit an eye specialist — if there is pain in eyes or redness, blurred vision, sensitivity to light, there is feeling of some foreign material in the eye or excess tearing. The symptoms — which are similar to other eye infections, can take weeks to last and conditions vary among infected peoples. This infection if neglected can result sometimes requiring corneal transplantation. Acanthamoeba is usually found in soil, water and spouts and sinks in a house. Investigations related to acanthamoeba outbreak are going on and it is done by the disease control agency, the FDA, state and local health departments and eye specialists through out the country. This infection has been found to occur in many countries. Dr. Jones’s and his team has the full credit for first identifying a corneal infection from acanthamoeba in the U.S. in 1973. Investigating team is searching out a number of possibilities to know the cause of the outbreak. Investigating team is also monitoring the chemicals in the AMO solution.