Bausch & Lomb assures customers over lens products

Contact lenses and eye-care product maker Bausch & Lomb Inc yesterday said products sold in Taiwan would remain on shelves as a lens solution allegedly linked to eye infections in the US had not been imported here.

The announcement came after the Rochester, New York-based company said on Monday it was temporarily halting shipments of its ReNu solution with MoistureLoc following reports of fungal infections in the US.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reviewing reports of 109 cases of suspected fungal keratitis. Keratitis is a corneal infection or inflammation. Prompt treatment is important, to avoid permanent eye damage.

The manufacturer had no estimate of how long shipments would be halted, according to spokeswoman Meg Graham.

Bausch & Lomb Taiwan Ltd yesterday said that Taiwan had not imported the questionable products.

The ReNu MultiPlus multipurpose solution the company sells in this country is manufactured using different formulas and marketed under different names, the company said.

Bausch & Lomb has no plans to recall products from Taiwan, it added.

The Department of Health said it had issued a permit in February for the company to sell ReNu MoistureLoc. It has now asked the company to temporarily stop importing the solution to address safety concerns.

Jessica Lu (魯燕芳), a sales manager at Bausch & Lomb Taiwan, said consumers need not panic. The risk of infection was greatly reduced if contact lens wearers followed directions on how to use the product, washed their hands with soap before touching their lenses and did not wear their lenses overnight, she said.

About 700,000 to 800,000 people in Taiwan use Bausch & Lomb's product, giving the firm about a 60 percent market share, Lu said.

Sales of ReNu with MoistureLoc worldwide were valued at about US$45 million last year, the company said. Bausch & Lomb stopped selling the product earlier this year in Singapore and Hong Kong following an unusual increase of the fungal disease.

Available scientific evidence doesn't show that ReNu is the cause of the fungal infections, Bausch & Lomb said in a statement released on Monday.

Of the 109 reported cases of suspected Fusarium keratitis, the US CDC has reviewed 30. Twenty-eight involved contact lens wearers, and of those, 21 used ReNu brand products and five said they used a combination of ReNu and products made by other manufacturers.

The risk of contracting contact lens-related microbial keratitis is about four to 21 individuals per 10,000 people, depending on whether the lenses are worn only during the day or overnight, the US Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.