Risk To Eyes In Use Of Drug

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30541, 9 September 1964, Page 1

Risk To Eyes In Use Of Drug

Eye troubles and even blindness have occasionally followed treatment by chloroquine and allied drugs. For this reason, the Ophthalmology Society of New Zealand recommends that all persons on these drugs should be seen by an eye-specialist six months after the start of treatment Dr. W. L. B Burns, a Christchurch ophthalmologist says in “Clinical Services Letter No. 45” of the Health Department. Chloroquine ana allied drugs are in common use in New Zealand in the treatment of certain skin conditions and of rheumatoid arthritis.

Chloroquine was originally developed, however, as an anti-malarial drug and is used widely in the tropics both in the prevention and treatment of malaria. According to medical practitioners in Christchurch, the amounts of chloroquine prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis and skin conditions may be much larger than the preventive dose for malaria, and normally continue for a much longer period than the malarial treatment dose. Dr. Burns was not available for comment as he is out of the country.

“The commonest complication consists of multiple deposits of the drug in the corneal epithelium” (“outside skin” of the eye), Dr. Burns says in the letter. “These deposits can increase to a stage where they cause some blurring of vision if the drug is continued after they first appear. In most of the reported cases the corneal deposits have cleared completely some months or even a year after stopping the drug, but in a few cases they have remained permanently. “Although corneal deposits are the most common ocular complication, there have been

cases of opacities developing in the anterior cortex of the lens, and also some cases where patients developed optic atrophy, (the general deterioration of the eye) and retinopathy (disease of the retina),” he says. “The few reported cases where lens opacities and optic atrophy with retinopathy were seen have shown no improvement after stopping the drug. In fact, their vision usually has continued to deteriorate and blindness may result No treatment of the established retinopathy has yet been effective."