A contact lens solution manufacturer voluntarily withdrew one of its products yesterday after federal health officials said an investigation had linked it to a rare but potentially blinding eye infection.

Customers were advised to immediately stop using the solution, AMO Complete Moisture Plus Multi-Purpose Solution. The solution, used to clean and store soft contact lenses, is made by Advanced Medical Optics of Santa Ana, Calif.

Soft contact lens wearers who have the AMO solution were advised to discard all partially used or unopened bottles and switch to alternative products. They should also throw out their current contact lenses and the lens storage case because they may harbor an infection-causing amoeba, officials of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said.

The agency also advised people who have used the product to call an eye doctor if they have experienced eye pain or redness, blurred vision, sensitivity to light, the feeling of something in the eye or excessive tearing. The symptoms, which resemble those of other eye problems, can last weeks to months and vary among patients.

Advanced Medical Optics said it withdrew the product as a precaution after the epidemiologists at the disease control centers said they had identified 138 laboratory confirmed cases of the infection, Acanthamoeba keratitis, that have occurred throughout the country since January 2005. Keratitis is inflammation of the cornea.

The authorities said that the link was “preliminary” and that it had not determined precisely how the patients became infected. But investigators found that the risk of developing the infection was at least seven times greater for those people who used the AMO product than for those who did not.

The company said, “There is no evidence to suggest that the voluntary recall is related to a product contamination issue and this does not impact any of AMO’s other contact lens care products.”

Acanthamoeba infection usually develops slowly and can be difficult to diagnose and treat. Doctors often attribute Acanthamoeba infections at first to a virus, herpes simplex, that is treatable. But the drugs for herpes do not help Acanthamoeba patients. Doctors advise treating the infection as early as possible.

The amoeba is ubiquitous and often found in tap and recreational water, soil, sewage, cooling towers and heating and ventilation systems. It is not spread person-to-person.

So far, epidemiologists have interviewed 46 of the 138 patients with confirmed cases of the illness. Of the 46, 39 (85 percent) wore soft contact lenses, 3 (7 percent) wore rigid lenses and 4 (9 percent) reported no contact lens use.

Acanthamoeba keratitis usually affects healthy people who wear contact lenses. About 85 percent of the cases reported in this country have occurred in contact lens users, including wearers who say they follow recommended contact lens-care practices, health officials said.

Ok everyone who uses this brand of saline please throw it away or drink it!