Contact-lens solution linked to infection won’t be shipped
Washington – Bausch & Lomb voluntarily suspended shipment of a contact-lens solution after federal health officials linked it Monday to a fungal eye infection that can cause temporary blindness.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating 109 reports of Fusarium keratitis infection in patients in 17 states since June 2005.
Federal and state health officials have interviewed just 30 of those patients. However, of the 28 who wore soft contact lenses, 26 reported using Bausch & Lomb’s ReNu brand contact-lens solution or a generic type of solution also made by the Rochester, N.Y., company.
Bausch & Lomb said it would temporarily suspend shipments of ReNu with MoistureLoc made at its Greenville, S.C., plant.
Five of the 26 patients also reported using other types of solutions in addition to ReNu, Bausch & Lomb said. And nine said they wore their lenses overnight, which is known to increase the risk of infection, the CDC said.
Dr. Daniel Schultz, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said it was too early to determine if Bausch & Lomb’s solution was the cause of the infections. Both the FDA and CDC are investigating a growing number of reports of infection by the fungus. An estimated 30 million Americans wear soft contact lenses.
KABUL, Afghanistan
Rocket hits crowded school, kills six kids
A rocket exploded in the middle of a packed school in eastern Afghanistan today, killing six children, police said.
The rocket landed in the yard of Salabagh School in Asadabad,close to a U.S.-led coalition base, said Mohammed Hasan, a police commander in the city in volatile eastern Kunar province, near the Pakistani border.
At least 14 people were wounded, including one teacher and the school cleaner, Hasan said. The bodies of the six dead students were handed over to their parents, who came rushing to the school when they heard the blast.
NAIROBI, Kenya
Crash kills officials of Kenyan government
A military plane carrying politicians to a peace conference crashed while attempting to land in northern Kenya during bad weather Monday, killing at least 14 people, including two assistant Cabinet ministers.
President Mwai Kibaki declared three days of national mourning.
Four of the 17 people on the plane were pulled from the fiery wreckage alive and flown to Nairobi for treatment, but one died on the way.
The plane crashed into a hill near Marsabit, 280 miles northeast of Nairobi. The conference was to ease tribal tensions along the Ethiopian border.
CHICAGO
Man guilty in killing that boys confessed to
A convicted sex offender pleaded guilty Monday to the 1998 murder of an 11-year-old girl whose death drew national headlines when two young boys were accused of the crime.
Floyd Durr, already serving a 125-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting other girls, was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years for the murder and sexual assault of Ryan Harris, who was beaten and sexually molested in July 1998, then dumped on Chicago’s South Side.
Authorities initially said two boys, 7 and 8, confessed to the crime. It took almost a month before testing on the girl’s clothing showed the boys couldn’t have been responsible. DNA tests later led prosecutors to Durr.
BURBANK, Calif.
Actor Blake’s request for new trial denied
A judge Monday turned down actor Robert Blake’s request for a new trial in the wrongful- death lawsuit over the slaying of his wife, rejecting arguments that members of the jury engaged in misconduct in reaching the $30 million verdict.
The state judge did not explain his ruling.
Blake was acquitted last year in criminal court of murdering Bonny Lee Bakley, who was gunned down in 2001 in Blake’s car outside a restaurant where the couple had just dined.
Last November, a civil court jury ruled 10-2 that Blake intentionally caused her death, and it awarded her children $30 million in damages. Civil trials do not require a unanimous verdict.
NEW YORK
Judge: Union chief to be punished for strike
The union president who called an illegal strike that halted New York City’s subways and buses in December should be jailed for 10 days and fined $1,000 for criminal contempt, a judge ruled Monday.
The judge said he would allow union president Roger Toussaint to remain free for the next 30 days so he could appeal. The judge also fined Toussaint’s two top deputies $500 each.
In staging the 60-hour walkout during the holiday shopping season, the union violated state law, which bars public employees from striking.
ACCRA, Ghana
At least 110 missing, likely dead, in sinking
An overloaded motorboat carrying about 150 passengers on a vast lake in this West African nation has sunk, and 110 people are missing and feared dead, police said Monday.
Only 40 people are known to have survived the sinking Saturday afternoon on Lake Volta, said Akwasi Anyidoho, a police official. He said hopes for finding more survivors were slim.
The boat was carrying passengers across the lake to the mainland, where they were moving their homes after their island was designated a natural reserve.
