Hong Kong officials still vigilant for infection outbreak

Friday, 12 January 2007

Health officials in Hong Kong are keeping a close eye on the relaunch of a withdrawn brand of contact lens solution. Bausch & Lomb’s ReNu Multiplus will hit store shelves in the country for the first time since it was taken off the market in February 2006. The Hong Kong Department of Health pulled Multiplus from shelves after another Bausch & Lomb solution, ReNu with MoistureLoc, was linked with an outbreak of the fungal eye infection Fusarium keratitis. MoistureLoc was pulled from store shelves at the same time as Multiplus. Bausch & Lomb issued a worldwide ReNu recall for MoistureLoc that May after health officials in the United States linked it with more than 130 cases of Fusarium keratitis symptoms. The suspicion at the time was that more than one Bausch & Lomb product was responsible for the infection outbreak. Although it was later determined that ReNu with MoistureLoc was the prime culprit in the outbreak of Fusarium keratitis symptoms, Hong Kong officials say they will work with doctors to closely monitor Multiplus patients to ensure that another rash of infections does not occur.