Bausch & Lomb settles 600 eye fungus lawsuits

[riverdeep]

Source: AP via yahoo news

Over the past year, away from the glare of public scrutiny, the optical products company has quietly settled nearly 600 fungal-infection lawsuits — with dozens more individual claims yet to be resolved. The cost so far: Upward of $250 million.

More than 700 lens wearers in the United States and Asia say they were exposed to a potentially blinding infection known as Fusarium keratitis while using ReNu with MoistureLoc, a new-formula multipurpose solution for cleaning, storing and moistening soft contact lenses.

Sometimes, the damage was irreparable. Seven people in Florida, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Tennessee and West Virginia had to have an eye removed. At least 60 more Americans needed vision-saving corneal transplants.

Victims typically complained of eye irritation that progressed to a sudden onset of searing pain. Many were mistakenly treated with antibiotics and steroids — a delayed diagnosis that worsened the condition. A woman in New York was afflicted three months after Bausch & Lomb announced a worldwide recall in May 2006. "She didn't know about the recall, and the infection was so aggressive, she lost her eye within two months," said her attorney, Hunter Shkolnik.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090531/ap_on_re_us/us_eye_fungus

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I'd never heard about this even happening, but I don't wear contacts or glasses. People had to have their eyes removed or were blinded permanently. How in the world did this make it to production stage without in-house testing revealing the possibility for fungal growth?

[earcandle]

1. Shuddering, grateful no one in my family wears these.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

2. My optometrist warned me of this a few years ago ...

... during an annual check/update of my contact lens prescription. After she mentioned it, I checked online and found a lot of information out there. She has re-enforced every visit since. Lucky for me, she's on top of it.

[Canuckistanian]

3. Eye Fungus???

There's such a thing as Eye Fungus?

Jesus, I swear there are new diseases or maladies coming out every week. Now I have to worry about Eye Fungus?

[izquierdista]

5. Fungus is everywhere

Fungal spores are almost as ubiquitous as bacteria. All they need are the right conditions to get going, and when they find them, it's off to the races. The part about treating with antibiotics; that just removes the bacteria that the fungal cells are in competition with, so of course it made the condition worse. Part of the problem is human laziness that wants to leave the contacts in while you sleep. When your eyes are going to be closed, you don't need the contacts, so take them out and clean them!

I've been wearing contacts for 30 years, taking them out at night and disinfecting them with a rinse of hydrogen peroxide before storing them in saline solution. That takes care of both bacteria AND fungi that I might have picked up during the day.

[Canuckistanian]

6. Oh, I know about fungal infections

I had some on my feet for two years. It was pure hell. Treatments were barely effective and it finally went away on it's own.

I was just alarmed that it could happen to my eyes.

[madmom]

4. My daughter wears contacts, she heard about this from an on-line chat group

she belongs to. She threw away a full bottle as well as made a friend do the same. Another thanks for the inter-webs!

[JCMach1]

7. I had several eye infections using this

Didn't make the connection until I heard about this at the time...

I have worn contact since I was 18... (so almost 25 years without infection before this stuff was on the market).

Grrr... It also took them months and months to get it off the shelves.

[Norrin Radd]

8. This is what small government, and removal of oversight and

regulations gets you.