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No impotence drug blindness cases so far in Taiwan

After CBS television reported that dozens of US citizens allegedly lost their vision after taking Viagra and other impotence drugs, an official of the Cabinet-level Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday that so far, it has found no similar cases in Taiwan.

Liu Li-ling (劉麗玲), deputy director of the DOH's Bureau of Pharmaceutical Affairs, said the department is aware of the reports and is gathering more information before deciding how to deal with the issue. So far, there are no medicine hazard reports concerning Viagra and two other impotence drugs, Cialis and Levitra, on the Web site of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the official added.

Meanwhile, according to the research of local urologists, some two to three of 10 users of impotence drugs reported having difficulty distinguishing between green and blue after taking the pill, but they recovered in one or two days.

They found the drugs have no long-term effect on eyesight or intraocular pressure, according to the research.

Lin Huei-fang (林慧芳), manager of public affairs of the Taiwan branch of Pfizer Inc., the maker of Viagra, indicated that there was no direct evidence proving the blue pills could cause blindness despite the CBS report of 38 Viagra users having experienced the problem.

The FDA is now probing 43 reports of sudden vision loss among men using erectile dysfunction drugs: 38 for Viagra, four for Cialis and one for Levitra. The sudden vision loss is a condition called NAION, the abbreviation for non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, and it occurs when blood flow is decreased or blocked to the optic nerve.
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