Growing Concern As Four Dead, 14 Blinded After Using Eye Drops

Earlier this year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced recalls of several eye drop brands.
The brands were linked to an outbreak of drug-resistant bacteria responsible for deaths and multiple cases of people going blind.
81 cases have been recorded in 18 states in the US.

Eko Hot Blog reports that the outbreak of “extensively” drug-resistant bacteria linked to eye drops is continuing to grow.

In an update on Friday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 81 cases and four deaths now reported across 18 states.

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“These cases were confirmed after the recall date due to the time it takes for testing to confirm the outbreak strain and because of retrospective reporting of infections,” the CDC said.

For months, the FDA has urged Americans to stop using two brands of eye drops suspected by investigators to be linked to the outbreak: Delsam Pharma and EzriCare.

An FDA inspection of the plant in India that had manufactured the products, operated by Global Pharma Healthcare Private Limited, turned up a range of issues, from dirty equipment to missing safeguards, earlier this year.

Testing done on already-opened bottles of EzriCare eye drops turned up the same strain of bacteria driving the outbreak across multiple states.

Health authorities have warned that the rare strain of bacteria driving the outbreak — a specific variant of Pseudomonas aeruginosa — was spreading person-to-person, especially through contaminated surfaces in hospitals and other health care settings with vulnerable patients.

While Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in general are common, Walters said the outbreak’s rare drug-resistant strain — never before seen in the U.S. — and its spread across facilities in multiple states made the situation unusual.

Fourteen people infected in the outbreak have now lost their vision, up from eight previously reported by the CDC. In addition, four patients needed their eyeballs surgically removed.