Originally published at: Outbreak of infection leaving 1 dead and 3 without vision is likely from brand of eyedrops, says CDC | Boing Boing
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Outbreak of infection leaving 1 dead and 3 without vision is likely from brand of eyedrops, says CDC
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I’ll sure keep an eye out for that brand. Thats about scary as hell since a lot of us use the Non preservative
kind of eye drops. I use an expensive brand (Refresh Optive)because my underlying thought is always nothing is too good for my eyes. Ezricare I have seen or heard of around here so I dodged that bullet. It would interesting to know where those drops were made.
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Serious as this is (and cornea as this post is going to get), I’m glad the eye drop company was not able to keep the lid on this. They deserve the lash.
But seriously, isn’t no-preservative eye drops asking for trouble?
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Eye doctors routinely recommend OTC eyedrops. I’m thankful now that they were too expensive for me. The local pharmacy keeps them in a locked case. Saved by poverty.
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It’s recommended for scleral lenses. I haven’t checked why, but I’m assuming that the preservatives don’t treat the eye well when they are under the lens.
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Thats why they are in little single use tubes. The danger would be a multiuse bottle that could get polluted. The down side is the plastic waste of course.
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As long as the company making them follows good manufacturing practices for sterile fluids, it shouldn’t be an issue, but clearly this company dropped the ball.
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EzriCare noted that it only has limited involvement with the artificial tears product—which is also marketed under other brands, the company noted, without identifying any other brands. “EzriCare, LLC’s only role in introducing the product to the market was to design an exterior label and to market it to our customers,” the company said. The eye drops are manufactured in India by Global Pharma Healthcare PVT Limited and imported into the United States by Aru Pharma Inc.
Not at all encouraging.
(Quote from Ars Technica article on this happening)
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Certainly a good start; but unfortunately not necessarily good enough: from the vendor’s deflectionary-but-probably-not-lying page:
The EzriCare Artificial Tears product is manufactured in India by Global Pharma Healthcare PVT Limited and imported into the United States by Aru Pharma Inc. EzriCare, LLC’s only role in introducing the product to the market was to design an exterior label and to market it to our customers. EzriCare, LLC had no role in the formulation, packaging delivery system design or actual manufacturing of this product.
We understand that the same product is also marketed under other brand names.
Thanks, cost-optimized global supply chain!
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The product in question here came in 10 and 15ml bottles with little screw tops. I’m absolutely no expert on quantified crying; but a quick look around showed single-use eye drops in little tear-off vials of under 1ml a pop as the most common flavor of preservative-free drops.
Given the consistency of the infection across multiple sites it doesn’t sound like contamination by the end user was the problem here; but this packaging seems pretty optimistic for a preservative-free formulation.
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