There has been a spurt of fungal infections in contact lens wearers and this week has seen three cases being reported as against the seven reported last month.
There has been a spurt of fungal infections in contact lens wearers and this week has seen three cases being reported as against the seven reported last month. This takes the overall cases since May last year to 22. All patients have suffered corneal infections and the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) has treated 19 such cases.
Almost all patients used Bausch and Lomb's (B&L) ReNu with MoistureLoc solution and the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) is investigating the same. B&L said that it would stop selling the product although conclusive evidence was lacking. "It could be because more people are using contact lenses. And people do abuse their lenses, as they would wear them for four or five years without bothering to clean them," said Contact Lens Practitioners board member Roland Izaac, adding that he was surprised at the number of infections. The SNEC said that around 300,000 and 400,000 people use contact lenses in the country.
