Thursday, May 18, 2006
I spy... in my little eye.
I like to find medical or biochemical limericks on the web; so with E.coli (in children) and Fusarium (in contact lens wearers) in the spotlight again this week, it was topical to find this example at Quote Me!
Acanthamoeba - by BobfromThirsk
It's an Acanthamoeba! My soul! I
Would never want that in my whole eye.
This evil wee beast
Will soon make a feast
Of your vision, 'tween snacks of E. coli.
For info: Acanthamoeba is a free living organism, abundant in both soil and water. It will thrive between the eyeball and the rear surface of poorly maintained contact lenses, particularly soft lenses, causing dangerous eye infections. The standard test for acanthamoeba is to place a suspect lens on a "lawn" of E.coli bacteria (lawn is a term used to describe a cultivation of E.coli on agar jelly). If the organism is present a clear area will appear around the lens where acanthamoeba has ingested the bacteria.
Health Warning: contact your pharmacist or optician if you are worried by the following product recall.
Bausch & Lomb's *ReNu with MoistureLoc* contact lens solution has been strongly implicated as the source of Fusarium keratitis (a fungal eye infection) in at least 109 USA contact lens wearers.
So following discussions with the FDA, B&L had recently withdrawn their lens solution from sale in USA.
click here for more detailed info.
Thankfully, the MHRA (our own Regulatory body in UK) has now followed suit with their own warning, although it is important to stress that there has not been any similar increases of Fusarium reported in UK contact lens wearers.
So Bausch and Lomb have this week had to announce a global product recall.click here for more detailed info.
Anyone wearing re-usable contact lens might want to check alternative lens solutions to avoid this rare but unpleasant possibility of a Fusarium fungal eye infection.
Acanthamoeba - by BobfromThirsk
It's an Acanthamoeba! My soul! I
Would never want that in my whole eye.
This evil wee beast
Will soon make a feast
Of your vision, 'tween snacks of E. coli.
For info: Acanthamoeba is a free living organism, abundant in both soil and water. It will thrive between the eyeball and the rear surface of poorly maintained contact lenses, particularly soft lenses, causing dangerous eye infections. The standard test for acanthamoeba is to place a suspect lens on a "lawn" of E.coli bacteria (lawn is a term used to describe a cultivation of E.coli on agar jelly). If the organism is present a clear area will appear around the lens where acanthamoeba has ingested the bacteria.
Health Warning: contact your pharmacist or optician if you are worried by the following product recall.
Bausch & Lomb's *ReNu with MoistureLoc* contact lens solution has been strongly implicated as the source of Fusarium keratitis (a fungal eye infection) in at least 109 USA contact lens wearers.
So following discussions with the FDA, B&L had recently withdrawn their lens solution from sale in USA.
click here for more detailed info.
Thankfully, the MHRA (our own Regulatory body in UK) has now followed suit with their own warning, although it is important to stress that there has not been any similar increases of Fusarium reported in UK contact lens wearers.
So Bausch and Lomb have this week had to announce a global product recall.click here for more detailed info.
Anyone wearing re-usable contact lens might want to check alternative lens solutions to avoid this rare but unpleasant possibility of a Fusarium fungal eye infection.
