B&L: extra polymer the cause of fungus infection

remember few months back there was this ‘eyecare scare news’ with regards to a popular brand of contact lens solution – bausch and lomb’s renu? the renu moistureloc was said to cause some eye infection after using it.

well at that time i was using B&L’s renu moistureloc and when the news came, since i just started to use a new bottle, i felt sayang to throw it away. i still continue to use it for several days until i read in jeff’s blog, where someone who used the solution suffered some eye infection and the batch number of the eye solution he gave was a bit similiar to the one i was using at that time! so i quickly stop using it at once and went shopping for a new one… and managed to get this – the sensiplus (no, not the sensintrovert).

well, lately bausch and lomb after some investigation, found out the reason why their renu caused the eye infection. from asia news:

Contact lens maker Bausch and Lomb has discovered that the cause behind the recent spate of fungal eye infections worldwide is the ReNu lens cleaning solution itself. The findings were released at the first day of the Asia-Pacific Academy of
Ophthalmology Congress.

Most contact lens cleaning solutions contain just one polymer, but ReNu MoistureLoc multipurpose contact lens solution has three.

B&L said that they thought this would keep the eyes moist and comfortable but instead this extra polymer ended up trapping fungus instead of killing fungus. it is a formulation problem, so said associate professor, donald tan:

“The disinfectant in MoistureLoc is actually very effective. The problem is when you add other things in, like the polymers, to improve comfort. The polymers are actually trapping the fungus so that the disinfectant, which is very strong, cannot
get at the fungus. So it is a formulation problem.”

gee. so it seems that too much of a good thing is no good. they thought the extra polymer might do good but instead too much of it trapped fungus. what is more frightening is what he said below:

“Bausch and Lomb has found that in open bottles you can get the fungus growing on the tip and on the cap of the open bottle because of the trapping of the fungus there. And what appears to be happening is that every time you add the solution onto your contact lens case, you actually add in fungus.”

hmm… i wonder does this happens to other type of contact lens solution? how do we get rid of the trapped fungus? by simply washing the tip and cap?

i remember i used to use the contact lens solution holder for a long time and was once reprimanded by my opthalmologist that i have to change the lens solution holder every three months. i suppose fungus could find its way to the holder too especially when i had been using it for a long long time!
whatever it is, well it’s true of course what doctors advises, that contact lens user must practise good contact lens cleaning and care regime. if you do not practise good and hygenic care, problem will sure to arise…. even without that extra polymer.