Eye Fungus a Mystery to Bausch & Lomb

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060412/ap_on_he_me/eye_fungus

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The source of a spike in dangerous fungal eye infections linked by federal health officials to a contact lens solution sold by Bausch & Lomb Inc. remains a mystery, the eye-care products maker said Wednesday.

"As far as speculation about theories, there's a lot of them, we've run a lot of them to ground and come up with nothing," the company's chief executive, Ron Zarella, said in a conference call with analysts.

"Every additional test we've run suggests that the formulation is as safe and effective as anything on the market and in particular with regard to Fusarium."

The company halted U.S. shipments of its ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution Monday night while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigates 109 reports of infection caused by a fungus called Fusarium in patients in 17 states.

[havocmom]

1. If Baushe & Lomb's products are a problem and others aren't

why don't they see what the other guys do different? :shrug:

[MADem]

2. 109 reports out of how many sales? Maybe they should check

the solution the contacts were PACKED in. Maybe it's the lenses themselves...

Another thing for people to panic about...!

[maxsolomon]

3. other than skiing, i gave up contact 10 years ago

i don't want no fungal eye infections

[Pugee]

8. Some of us don't have a choice about wearing them

I am not supposed to ever wear glasses as my eyes get worse quickly. Also, I cannot see 20/20 with glasses, but can with contacts.

(and before someone suggests it, I really can't afford $4,000 for the surgery)

[maxsolomon]

15. it don't cost no $4000

it costs $3999.99!

see how much more affordable it is?

i just had LASEK & i feel it was worth every penny.

[goclark]

16. I understand, with my eye condition

I can not have the laser surgery.

Wish I could so it's contacts/glasses or nothing to see.

I am still blessed that I have an option, many don't.

[flying_wahini]

4. or maybe a disgruntled employee spit in the vat .......

[sui generis]

5. aaaaaaaaah! aspergillus (barf noises follow)

[fishnfla]

6. I dont think B&L Renu is the problem

I absolutely hate B&L as a company for business reasons, but I dont think Renu is the source/cause of these infections. I think the linkage to the infection in 27 of the cases is happenstance. For one thing most contact lens wearers use one of 4 brands: B&L, Alcon, Allergan or store bought (generic). I'd bet you'd find the remainder out of the 100-some cases spread out among those solutiuons.

[sui generis]

7. whatever molecule they're using for the "moisture-loc" component

may be encouraging fungal growth, especially if it's not found in the other solutions.

On at least three occasions I've opened my contact case in the morning and found what looked like a gray threaded bacterial colony on the lid of the case, but in retrospect it could have been fungal. I just threw the lenses and case away and opened the next package, but there's no reason to think that an active culture would actually be concentrated enough to be visible.

It's one of the reasons I did this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=221&topic_id=31951&mesg_id=32039

[fishnfla]

10. Yes, but the infection will be found in non-Renu users

I'm guessing the problem is more global, as in global warming, or environmental like hurricanes, or endemic like contaminated water supplies or air handling units in buildings or airplanes

Contact lenses,and the cases, no matter what the solution, are serving as a vector for a widespread fusarium problem. Sort of like a culture medium

[brentspeak]

9. I have a friend who dropped his contact in the mud

it was also stepped on, so that it was flattened. He picked it out of the mud, cleaned it off with some saline solution, and reshaped it. I said "You're not going to put that back in your eye, are you?"

He said "Yeah, why not? These things are expensive." Then he reinserted on his eye.

(I don't need to wear contacts, but to me they seem pretty scary.)

[confludemocrat]

11. Fusarium is everywhere, it must be in their batches

or the formulation selectively enriches for this fungus. It mostly lives in the soil and is not that adapted to being airborne compared to some other fungi but is definitely a sign of a major contamination problem. I do research on fungi, and I would not be surprised if they already knew what the problem was, but are buying time trying to fix or trying to sell deniability to the public before the lawsuit shit hits the fan!

[BiggJawn]

12. 2 words...

Quality Control...

[classics]

13. Perhaps related to CIA deployment of this fungus?

http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/bk/bk4en.html

Interesting information here including:

"F. oxysporum EN-4 is awaiting its first field trial. In 1999-2000, the US applied significant pressure on the Colombian government to agree to field test the fungus. Field testing of the EN-4 pathogen, often referred to as a mycoherbicide by the US government, was introduced as a legal condition for the release of nearly US $1,300,000,000 in (mainly military) aid to Bogotá for its "Plan Colombia" counterinsurgency and anti-narcotics efforts."

[Megahurtz]

14. Ha ha!

Now that seriously would not surprise me one bit!:7

[katinmn]

17. Interesting. There are 2 dozen documented instances where military

or military-funded labs have goofed up (they say) and let bioterror agents, bioweapons, loose. I wrote about it last month. http://www.neurologyreviews.com/main.html "Bioterrorism—Are We Prepared for an Attack?" Sorry it's not online yet.

The general sense is that the greatest risk may come from a domestic "accident," not a terrorist attack with bioweapons.

And then there's that anthrax case....

But giving someone an eye infection seems like a pretty wimpy bioterror attack when there are so many more damaging ones out there such as plague, tularemia, sarin gas, and the reconstituted 1918 pandemic flu.