Fungus sends some back to glasses

Dozens of people are groping for glasses because of the fungal infection.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
William Spadafora had tried reading glasses, distance glasses and bifocals. He had lost glasses, stepped on glasses, and dropped glasses off the side of a boat.
"I was fed up with glasses and I wanted to try something different, so that's why I tried contacts," said Spadafora, 58. "They worked for me for five or six years until I came down with the fungus."
Say hello again to glasses.
Spadafora, of Malden, Mass., is among the dozens of contact lens wearers in the United States left groping for glasses thanks to blurred vision and pain from Fusarium keratitis, a nasty fungal infection. Health authorities say most of the victims in 17 states were using ReNu with MoistureLoc eye solution to cleanse their contacts.
The outbreak also has many of the nation's 30 million soft contact wearers tossing out their ReNu-MoistureLoc bottles and turning to other products. Stores and optometrists are taking the solution off their shelves.
Patients worry
Optometrists around the country say they're inundated with calls from patients asking what to do. Florida has the highest number of cases in the country, with more than 50 reported so far.
"What we're saying is not to use the solution and if there's any problem or they feel something going on to come and see the doctor," said Sheila Narales, a receptionist for Dr. Marie Tartibi of Oviedo, an Orlando, Fla., suburb. "They're concerned. We have a lot of patients calling about it."
Spadafora describes the symptoms: "I felt pain, like somebody was pressing their finger against my eyeball." He's still plagued by a hazy film over his eyes.
The stock price for Bausch & amp; Lomb, the maker of ReNu, has plummeted -- even though not everyone is convinced the company's product is the real culprit, including Dr. Harry Zink, president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Bottles of the solution have been tested by Bausch & amp; Lomb and independent doctors and no contamination has been found.
Fusarium is commonly found in plant material and soil in tropical and subtropical regions. Without eye drop treatment, which can last two to three months, the infection can scar the cornea and blind its victims.
Zink called the outbreak "one of those things that happens in medicine, where you really need to get more data and more information."
Still, Bausch & amp; Lomb halted U.S. shipments of the product last week, and major merchants, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., have pulled it from their shelves.
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