Amid a government shutdown, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot do the job of watching the nation’s health. With two-thirds of the staff furloughed, about 13,000 employees worldwide, the CDC’s director, Dr. Thomas Frieden, says he is losing sleep. Without personnel, the agency is not on […]
As we age, we are more likely to get cataracts, a cloudy lens in the eye that reduces our ability to see. Researchers from Dallas suspected the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, was correlated with the development of cataracts. Results from a new study prove that assumption is […]
Because the dangers of electronic cigarettes are unknown, attorneys general from 40 states have called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to restrict the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors. Electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes (e-cigs) are battery operated chambers that deliver a heated liquid formulation of nicotine from tobacco […]
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) has just created a new MDL (multidistrict litigation) proceeding in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. This new MDL has been formed in order to centralize the various state court claims alleging that Effexor, the serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor antidepressant causes birth defects […]
Researchers publishing in the August 27th issue of the online journal Clinical Drug Investigation, report that use of the cancer drug Avastin has been linked to high blood pressure and gastrointestinal bleeding. This is not the first bad news associated with Avastin. The drug was approved by the Food and […]
They look like fun bandages or stickers – eye candy for little children. That’s why parents are being warned about how toxic fentanyl pain patches have been linked to accidental exposures resulting in several child fatalities. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will require manufacturers of the fentanyl pain patches to make […]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally seems to be taking something other than a head-in-the-sand approach to monitoring medical devices after they are approved and in use by patients. The U.S. does not monitor medical devices after they go through the FDA’s approval process. Since most medical devices are […]
University of California, Berkeley researchers have developed a tool to look into the world of bacteria that causes chronic infection in patients and the protective mechanism that makes some immune to antibiotic treatment. Biofilm forms as a reaction to the introduction of bacteria. Using super-resolution light microscopy, which has ten times […]
The search has been on for a new and improved drug treatment for type 2 diabetes that would leave the complications of Avandia in the past. That hasn’t happened. New Class of Diabetes Drugs, DPP-4 The latest findings concern a newer class of diabetes drugs called DPP-4 that lower blood […]
This may be the first fatality due to the ingestion of a concentrated laundry detergent pod. A seven-month-old from Kissimmee died after ingesting some of the detergent contained in the brightly-colored packet. The child and his mother were living in a battered woman’s shelter, according to the Orlando Sentinel, and […]
