Cataract surgery, blindness crisis... Fungal infection investigation

<Anchor>

Cataract surgery is the most common surgery in Korea.

Over 680,000 cases per year.

However, after undergoing cataract surgery, more and more people say they are in crisis of blindness.

In the last four months, more than 150 have been reported to the Ophthalmology Society.

As for what happened, I will first look at reporter Kim Hyung-rae's report and continue talking.

<Reporter>

Lee Mo, 54, has already been unable to leave the house for nearly three months.

I had cataract surgery two months ago, and my left eye, where I had the surgery, suddenly became infected with a fungus.

I had several injections of antibiotics into my eyes, but there was no improvement.

Eventually, I underwent additional surgery to remove the intraocular lens and scrape the entire infected area.

[Aunt's seed/fungal infection patient: Anesthesia, but just piercing the eye with a needle?

You can think of it as piercing your eyes with an awl.

Sometimes I get hit by 3 generations...

.

It was so painful that I really wanted to pluck my eyes.]

I almost lost sight of one side,

so the

front was greatly blurred, and it became difficult to distinguish colors.

Son Mo, 61, also had a fungal infection in his eyes after cataract surgery in October last year.

In the course of further treatment, you can barely lose sight and cannot go up and down the stairs of the house.

[Patients infected with grandmother/fungal fungus: (distance) I can't feel the sensation, so I sometimes fall, and I can't see my right eye, so I bump into it...

.]

More than 150 cases of such side effects have been reported to the Ophthalmology Society since September last year.

[Choi Hyeok-jin/Vice-Chief Director of the Korean Ophthalmological Association (Burn Interview): (Fungic fungal infection) is extremely less frequent than bacterial endophthalmitis.

I think (clinical information) should be used to judge this endophthalmitis.] The

Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has launched an investigation. Was found.

As a result of an investigation into the factory of the pharmaceutical company, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety ordered that the manufacturing process may be contaminated, such as reuse of raw materials once opened, and ordered to stop sales and collect the entire quantity.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also conducting an epidemiological investigation to determine whether the cause of the group infection is due to the drug.

The pharmaceutical company said in SBS's coverage that it is currently waiting for the results of the final investigation and will fulfill its responsibilities according to the results.

(Video coverage: Cho Chun-dong, video editing: Park Jin-hoon)

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Reporter Kim Hyung-rae is here.

[Reporter Kim Hyung-rae: The most angry part of the patients we met during our coverage is that they are not getting help anywhere.

Some hospitals that performed surgery refuse to pay for treatment, saying it is not their responsibility.

The pharmaceutical company that made the product that was found to be abnormal in the KFDA investigation is still waiting for the results of the final epidemiological investigation by the KCDC, and is not responding.

Meanwhile, patients who have lost a lot of their eyesight are struggling with treatment costs of over 2 million won a month without having to work properly.]

[Reporter Hyung-Rae Kim: But what was not going well, I inquired directly to the health authorities about how many cases of damage were received in relation to this incident, but it was not yet understood.

There is not a drug damage relief system, but there is a related system at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, but in this case, even if the cause of diarrhea is identified as this specific drug, it may be a little difficult to apply.]

.

[Reporter Hyung-Rae Kim: The damage relief system I just mentioned is the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's Remedy System for Relief Relief for Side Effects of Drugs. This is the government's support for medical expenses in the event of side effects from normally used drugs.

However, in this case, contaminated drugs, in the end, this is the responsibility of the pharmaceutical company, making it difficult to support the government.

Once victims have to file a lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company in order to receive such compensation, as always, as the case lengthens, the victims' suffering will inevitably increase.

In such a situation, it is likely that the health authorities will need to understand the actual situation and consider supplementing the system.]