Bausch & Lomb recalls product

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: When Sharinder Kaur Dhillon, 21, tried Bausch & Lomb’s ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution last year, she experienced an allergic reaction and stopped using the product.
A few months later, she came across newspaper articles linking fungal eye infections (Fusarium keratitis) to the solution and was relieved that she did not suffer a worse reaction.
"I bought that brand because the one I usually used was out of stock, but it caused irritation to my eyes and I stopped.
"After seeing the articles, I never touched that brand again," she said.
Alfred Jay Gasper, 28, however, was a loyal MoistureLoc user but stopped buying all products by Bausch & Lomb after reading about the eye infections.
Yesterday, Bausch & Lomb announced it was permanently removing its MoistureLoc contact lens solutions worldwide with immediate effect.
In a statement, Bausch & Lomb Malaysia said a voluntary product exchange of the MoistureLoc, which was manufactured in Greenville, in the United States, would be launched as soon as details were finalised.
Sales of MoistureLoc in Malaysia had also been suspended since March to facilitate investigations.
The optical trade had also been notified in April of Bausch & Lomb’s intention to accept returns.
The statement came after health authorities in Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States and Malaysia reported that many contact lens users treated for Fusarium keratitis had used MoistureLoc.
In Malaysia, the Health Ministry had in March ordered the immediate withdrawal of all ReNu multipurpose contact lens care solutions made by Bausch & Lomb from the market following cases of contact lens-related fungal eye infections.
Based on information received from the Tun Hussein Onn Eye Hospital, the Health Ministry said there were 14 contact lens-related infective keratitis cases between January 2005 and February this year.
Out of the 14, six patients cited ReNu as the solution used.
"Bausch & Lomb’s top priority is the safety of our customers and we want them to have complete confidence in our products," said Bausch & Lomb chairman and chief executive officer Ronald L. Zarrella in the statement.
Zarrella added that extensive investigations showed that there was no evidence of product contamination, tampering, counterfeiting or sterility failure.
"That leads us to conclude that some aspects of the MoistureLoc formula may be increasing the relative risk of Fusarium infection in unusual circumstances.
"We are continuing to investigate this link," he said in the statement.