Papers on fungal and bacterial infections

As the dust begins to settle after the outbreak of fungal eye infections among contact lens wearers and attention turns to the lessons the industry can learn from the experience, further studies have been published on the safety of contact lenses and the risks compared to laser refractive surgery.

It was back in August that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the results of its investigation into the US cases of Fusarium keratitis (News, August 24). Chang et al (1) identified 164 confirmed cases, of whom 154 wore soft contact lenses. Although these cases were significantly more likely than controls to report using ReNu with MoistureLoc, Fusarium was not recovered from the factory, warehouse, solution filtrate or unopened solution bottles.