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Refractive surgery group calls for CDC to retract keratitis report
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The Refractive Surgery Alliance has formally demanded that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention retract a November report that linked close to 1 million office visits each year to poor contact lens care, which it believes creates a false understanding of the risks of contact lenses.
The CDC report was published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and was based on an analysis of billing data, according to a press release from the Refractive Surgery Alliance (RSA).
The RSA letter stated that the CDC report, “has created the mistaken impression among the media and among many in the public that the cost for reimbursed medical care extending from contact lens misuse approaches $180 million” and 1 million clinical visits per year, according to the press release.
RSA also noted the inclusion of an obscure study within the report of 91 patients dating back to 1991.
“We hope the CDC will respond to our letter and correct the mistaken public perception their report generated about contact lens risks. Of course, the RSA supports the CDC’s recommendations for common sense precautions that all contact lens users should follow,” said Lance Kugler, MD, president of RSA and CEO of Kugler Vision in Omaha, Neb., one of the physicians who wrote the letter.