Bausch & Lomb recalls second contact lens solution

March 2007 - Bausch & Lomb, which has been struggling to recover from a sweeping recall of its ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution, said on Tuesday it had initiated a recall of certain lots of its ReNu MultiPlus contact lens solution.

The company advises consumers to discard any lens care solution that appears to be discolored. The recalled lots all carry the expiration date "2008 - 03" on the bottle.

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Bausch & Lomb Still Unsure Of Mystery Fungus

The company halted U.S. shipments of its ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution Monday night while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigates 109 reports of infection caused by a fungus called Fusarium in patients in 17 states.

The agency has made no direct link between ReNu and the infections, traced back to June 2005, but a high incidence of the affected people had used the solution. 

Bausch & Lomb, which also makes contact lenses, ophthalmic drugs and vision-correction surgical instruments, stopped short of pulling the brand, made at its factory in Greenville, S.C., but merchants led by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. began removing it from store shelves Tuesday. 

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. 

Symptoms can include blurry vision, pain or redness, increased sensitivity to light and excessive discharge from the eye. It is not transmitted from person to person. 

In February, Bausch & Lomb stopped shipments of ReNu in Singapore and Hong Kong after a similar spike in fungal infections was reported in contact-lens wearers there. It is partnering with health authorities and researchers to investigate the extent and cause of the outbreak, which also surfaced in Malaysia. 

More than 30 million Americans wear contact lenses, and the ReNu brand generated $45 million in U.S. sales last year. 

You can read more at the following link:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/12/health/main1493941.shtml?source=RSS&attr=Health_1493941ource=RSS&attr=Health_1493941 

This posting was found on a Yahoo Message board 05/03/06 for Bausch & Lomb:

 http://messages.yahoo.com/bbs?action=topics&board=7076604&sid=7076604&type=r 

10:43 ET Bausch & Lomb: CDC updates investigation; more than MoistureLoc appears to be at risk - Baird (BOL) 44.20 -4.55: -Update- Baird says the CDC has updated information on 58 fungal keratitis cases (56 contact lens wearers). Of the 56, 57% used ReNu MoistureLoc, 27% Multiplus, and the rest an unknown ReNu product. Firm notes that the association with MoistureLoc and now MultiPlus is far greater than any other competing solutions (to date, firm has yet to confirm that any fungal infections were associated with the exclusive use of a non-BOL solution), and therefore remain concerned that the entire ReNu franchise -- not just MoistureLoc -- could be at risk. As a reminder, firm has already removed what they believe are the vast majority of ReNu (including MoistureLoc and MultiPlus) sales from their 2006-07 ests, and therefore are making no changes at present to their model.