The US Food and Drug Administration has issued warnings for 26 over-the-counter eye care products, saying there’s a potential for infection that could lead to vision loss or even blindness.
The products carry the CVS Health, Rite Aid, Leader (Cardinal Health), Rugby (Cardinal Health) and Target Up&Up labels, as well as New York-based Velocity Pharma, which retailers have identified as the eye drops’ supplier.
The FDA has provided a list of the products on its website, reports The Washington Post.
It advised the manufacturer to recall the drops after its inspectors discovered “insanitary conditions in the manufacturing facility”, as well as “positive bacterial test results from environmental sampling of critical drug production areas in the facility”.
Earlier this year, several other eye drop brands were recalled over concerns about whether they were sterile.
In March, the Purely Soothing 15% MSM Drops were recalled over concerns they could be contaminated. A month earlier, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention urged consumers to stop using EzriCare Artificial Tears, a preservative-free eye drop product suspected of causing an outbreak of 55 serious bacterial infections in 12 states.
At least five of them resulted in permanent vision loss and at least one death.
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US recall on eye drops after severe drug-resistant infection
Three dead and eight blinded from contaminated eye drops
Sub-standard generic medicines killing children globally