30 complain of blurred vision after being administered contaminated medicine

Thirty people developed blurred vision after they were allegedly injected with contaminated medicine in their eyes at Delhi government's Guru Teg Bahadur hospital.

Eight of the 20 patients had to undergo operation at AIIMS to restore their vision, said Dr Atul Kumar, Chief of R P Centre at the premier health institute.

He said these patients were injected with Avastin (Bevacizumab), an anti-growth factor drug which is used to prevent irreversible blindness in patients suffering from diabetic retinopathy, hypertensive retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration.

"Avastian is classified as a sight-saving drug and is used all over the world. Now in this case, these patients probably were given contaminated injections as they developed blurred vision accompanied with mild pain.

"Eight of them had to be operated upon to remove the infectious part of the vitreous humour while the vision of the rest improved after primary treatment," Dr Kumar said.

One of the vials of the medicine — Avastin — used by GTB doctors is suspected to have been contaminated.

The contamination may have happened if the drug was not properly stored, had manufacturing defect or had remained open after being unsealed till it was administered, Dr Kumar said.

According to the sources, five of them have become visually impaired permanently and there are no chances of recovering their eyesight. Rest of the patients have undergone treatment but there are very low chances of the damage being repaired.

"I took my brother to GTB hospital on Saturday and he was given the injection after which he developed pain and his vision got blurred," said Jaswinder Singh. "We took him back to the hospital. Few more patients who had received injections the same day also had the same complaint.

The batch of 20 patients, including my brother, was then sent to AIIMS," said Jaswinder, whose brother had been receiving treatment at 

the ophthalmology department of GTB hospital for more than a month.

Dr Kumar said all the patients have been sent back to GTB hospital for their post-operative care. They will be brought to AIIMS every day for check up as a follow-up action.

Avastin is a standard treatment for blindness prevention due to ageing, diabetes, hypertension and rupturing blood vessels. One vial contains around 20 doses. The medicine is imported from Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Director of GTB hospital Dr Sunil Kumar said the sample of the drug has been sent to the laboratory for examination.