Thirteen people who received eye injections at Tangier’s Mohammed VI University Hospital have ended up in hospital with acute inflammation, raising questions over what went wrong during a treatment session attended by 16 patients.
The injections were given on Oct 8. A day later, two patients developed severe inflammation, setting off alarm bells at the hospital’s ophthalmology department.
The hospital called back all 16 patients for examination. By Oct 10, doctors had found that 13 of them, including women and children, were suffering from acute inflammation and severe redness of the eyes.
Only three had escaped complications.
The affected patients were admitted and put on specialized antibiotics, with doctors keeping them under observation round the clock. What caused the complications is still unclear.
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The Moroccan Agency for Medicines and Health Products has taken samples of the injections for laboratory tests to establish whether the patients developed an infection through contamination or suffered an inflammatory reaction to the drug.
The medication was not new to the department. It had been used for several months, and some patients had received more than five injections before the Oct 8 session.
The batch used that day bore an expiry date of Sept 30, 2028.
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Health ministry inspectors have been sent to the hospital, where an inquiry is under way into how the medication was stored and used. The hospital management and its infection control committee are involved in the investigation.
In a statement, the hospital said all 13 patients were receiving care from a specialized medical team and their families were being kept informed of their condition.
It said the findings of the investigation would be made public once the tests and technical examinations were completed.
