Three People Die, Four Lose Eyeballs After Using Contaminated Eyedrops

Contaminated eyedrops have resulted in mass carnage and multiple deaths, the CDC says.

The CDC believes EzriCare or Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Tears products are possibly responsible for three people dying and four people needing their eyes surgically removed.

The reason being a drug resistant strain of bacteria known as Pseudomonas aeruginosa that appears to be wreaking havoc on people. The outcomes are straight out of a horror movie.

The CDC announced the following details on the crisis:

As of March 14, 2023, CDC, in partnership with state and local health departments, identified 68 patients in 16 states (CA, CO, CT, FL, IL, NC, NJ, NM, NY, NV, PA, SD, TX, UT, WA, WI) with VIM-GES-CRPA, a rare strain of extensively drug-resistant P. aeruginosa. Thirty-seven patients were linked to four healthcare facility clusters. Three people have died and there have been 8 reports of vision loss and 4 reports of enucleation (surgical removal of eyeball). Dates of specimen collection were from May 2022 to February 2023. Isolates have been identified from clinical cultures of sputum or bronchial wash (15), cornea (17), urine (10), other nonsterile sources (4), and blood (2), and from rectal swabs (26) collected for surveillance; some patients had specimens collected from more than one anatomic site. Most patients reported using artificial tears. Patients reported over 10 different brands of artificial tears and some patients used multiple brands. EzriCare Artificial Tears, a preservative-free, over-the-counter product packaged in multidose bottles, was the brand most commonly reported. This was the only common artificial tears product identified across the four healthcare facility clusters.

CDC tells people to stop using potentially contaminated eyedrops.

This is an absolutely horrifying situation. It's like something you'd expect to see out of a film like "The Crazies" (criminally underrated horror movie) or any other film of the genre.

People are losing their eyes and dying because of contamination in their eyedrops. Not only is it terrible, but the CDC describes the strain as "drug-resistant."

This is the stuff that keeps people awake at night with nightmares from the depths of hell.

People are losing their eyes because of contaminated eyedrops. (Credit: Getty Images)

The horror is unthinkable.

Imagine you're getting your day started with a hot shower, warm cup of coffee and your daily eyedrops.

Next thing you know, you're in a hospital looking like a character in a B-horror film without your eyes. That's if you're lucky.

You could also just die. No good options on the table here.

The only real option is to round up all the eyedrops and drop a couple nuclear bombs on them. Better safe than sorry considering the stakes.