The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the Massachusetts pharmacy linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak was aware it had mold and bacteria contamination – including in the “clean rooms” where supposedly sterile drugs are made. Yet the New England Compounding Center repeatedly failed to take action, according to an article in the Washington Post.
The current outbreak of meningitis – an inflammation of the tissue lining the brain and the spinal cord – was caused by ...
continue reading...The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning that the potentially dangerous eye drops and decongestants – including a wide range of brand-name and generic varieties – don’t come in child-resistant packages, and can sicken children.
The medicines in both types of product cause blood vessels to constrict. While harmless when used as directed, less than a fifth of a teaspoon can send children to the hospital, or even put them in a coma.
And according to a U.S. Consumer Product Safety ...
continue reading...An article in the New York Times tells the story of a brain-damaged, two-year-old girl whom doctors describe as “neurologically devastated,” and used her story as an example of the difficult issues surrounding the expensive care of patients who will never recover.
The girl, Portia Davis, has virtually no brain, the story says.
Portia’s mother, Venita Davis, was 27 weeks pregnant and had started having labor pains when her doctor gave her a drug to stop uterine contractions and ordered a sonogram, ...
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A story on CBS News says the current meningitis outbreak presents a unique challenge for medical professionals dealing with it. That’s because the fungus causing it has never before been associated with meningitis.
The report quotes Dr. Arjun Srinivasan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as saying: “I don’t think there is a precedent for this kind of thing … This is definitely new territory ...
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According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 85 percent of all strokes are “ischemic.” That means the blood flow to the brain is blocked – either by blood clots, or by fatty deposits in blood vessel linings called plaque.
Risk factors for stroke include high blood pressure, diabetes, long periods of physical inactivity and a family history of stroke. Use of birth control pills can increase the ...
continue reading...A wrongful death lawsuit against Monster Beverage Corp., and a recently released report indicating that the drink may have been responsible for five deaths, have reignited safety concerns about highly caffeinated “energy drinks,” ABC News reports.
The lawsuit was filed by the parents of Anais Fournier, a 14-year-old Maryland girl who drank two 24-ounce cans of Monster Energy on two consecutive days last December before going into cardiac arrest. Medical examiners determined that the caffeine caused her irregular heartbeat, although she ...
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