Dangerous Generic Artificial Tears

 

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend. I wanted to take a moment and talk about the recalled artificial tears that you may have heard about on the news. I have had a few calls from patients over the last couple of weeks about these. They are Ezricare non-preserved artificial tears and were recalled on February 2nd. There have been 55 reported infections with 5 people losing vision and one person dying. How can you die from an eye drop you ask... Eye drops, like all medications, are absorbed into the body as well as the eye. In this case the bacteria got into the blood stream and the patient most likely became septic, which is an infection in the blood. 

These particular drops are not any I have ever heard of and I have never seen them locally. They are manufactured in India. The particular issue with these is that they are non-preserved so any bacteria that is in the bottle has nothing to stop it from growing. The photos of the drop seem to show a large bottle. The non-preserved drops that I and the other doctors in our office recommend come in small vials and are completely safe to use. 

A few key points to remember about this story:

• Eyedrops are medication and can affect the entire body just like any other medication.
• Use only drops recommended or prescribed by your eye doctor. Do not use drops that were prescribed for your kids or your pets. Yes, people do that....
• All over the counter and prescription medications have risk in taking them. Generic medications can sometimes be fine but overseas manufacturing of medication where the FDA cannot inspect adequately increase the risk, which is what happened here. 
• To reduce your risk see the post I wrote almost 2 years ago to the day with tips on how to keep yourself safe when choosing a medication. 

Are generic medications safe?

Thanks for reading and as always if you have any concerns about your eyedrops please discuss those with your optometrist and bring the bottle with you to your visit. 

Dr. Jason