16 patients, including a child, have lost their sight after having been injected with the “avastin” (a form of bevacizumab), a monoclonal antibody used to treat cancer, instead of receiving the appropriate drug to treat their conditions of macular degeneration, at Casablanca’s 20 August Hospital of University Hospital Centre Ibn Rushd -Averroes- (CHU), the hospital stated in a press release on Wednesday.
The error occurred last month, according to the hospital’s administration, when on Sept. 19, the Ophthalmology Department received a number of patients who were supposed to receive an injection of Avastin, a drug initially developed to treat various types of cancer.
They received an injection of bevacizumab as part of their treatment for eye diseases resulting from chronic illnesses such as diabetes, according to the press release.
The following day, two of them complaining of pain and redness were brought in on an emergency basis for evaluation by the ophthalmology department after their sight started to deteriorate rapidly. 14 other patients who were injected with Avastin were called into the hospital for observation and emergency medical and therapeutic care, said the head of the pediatric ophthalmology department Dr. Asmaa El Kettani.
The doctor explained that the treatment is done in the form of injections into the eye to counter further side effects, such as macular edema (swelling) or growth of new blood vessels.
Kettani said that five patients who had completed their treatment and showed no visual edema were allowed to leave the hospital. 11 patients remain under medical supervision.
None of the patients has yet regained his or her ability to see, however.