All news posts from June 01, 2007 to June 30, 2007

Thomas & Friends’ Toy Train Maker Faces Lawsuits Updated June 2007 - The RC2 corporation was named as a defendant in two lawsuits . The cases were brought on behalf of injured children, and attorneys were requesting that RC2 provide medical exams for those children who may have ingested lead paint whil

Lilly Settles Zyprexa Claims Updated June 2007- Eli Lilly established this month a class settlement fund worth nearly $700 million for the nearly 8,000 plaintiffs who would agree to settle their claims against the drugmaker for their use of the prescription drug Zyprexa. Zyprexa, also known as olanzapine

Over the past few months there have been numerous recalls and warnings with food and other products from China. China ’s export of pet food was found to contain melamine and contaminated wheat gluten, which led to the largest pet food recall in American History. Toothpaste from China was recently fo

Updated June, 2007: At the American Diabetes Association ’s annual meeting in Chicago, experts on Avandia debated recent findings about the drug from a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The findings show that Avandia users have a 43% increased risk for heart attacks and

Updated June 2007- According to a study completed in Hong Kong , elderly obese people have a lower risk of contracting tuberculosis in comparison to underweight and average weight elderly people. The study had 42,116 people from 18 geriatric centers closely monitored for 5 years from 2000. The pa

Updated June, 2007: Shelhigh Inc . of Union, NJ agreed to a consent order to stop distributing its implantable medical devices until manufactured devices have been corrected and all FDA standards are met. The devices and components which include pediatric heart valves and conduits, surgical patch

FDA Ordering Safety of Vitamins, Supplements Updated June 2007- The Food and Drug Administration issued guidelines for manufacturers of herbal supplements , vitamins, and other nutritional aids. From now on, products will need to undergo additional testing in order to ensure that they are not cont

Extensively Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Becoming More Prevalent Extensively drug resistant TB (XDR-TB) is a form of TB that is almost completely resistant to antibiotics. Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that attacks the lungs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) , nearly 30,000 peop

A new study, done by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, found that almost 5% of patients in hospitals and nursing homes are infected with a drug-resistant staph germ called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) . This superbug cannot be cured by many

Ketamine May Cause Bladder, Kidney Dysfunction Updated June 2007- Several epidemiologists have linked several severe cases of bladder and kidney dysfunction to ketamine abuse in ten young adults in Hong Kong. Widely abused by young adults as a party drug, ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic simil

Many lawsuits have been filed after people became ill from eating salmonella contaminated peanut butter. There have been over 600 known cases of illness in 47 different states from the Peter Pan brand peanut butter. The peanut butter was voluntarily recalled by ConAgra Foods , the makers of Peter Pan, on

On June 15, the FDA issued an alert for Propofol , also known as Diprivan. There have been several clusters of patients that have experienced fever, chills, and body aches shortly after receiving the drug for sedation. These symptoms persisted for many hours after the Propofol was administered. Several of th

A Canadian study suggests that petting zoos are not up to par in a number of hygienic areas. Researchers sent people to 36 different petting zoos to observe the quality of hygiene, and what they found was not promising. Many of the petting zoos included animals that are at a high risk for spreading in

Jury Awards 5.5M in Duragesic Patch Lawsuit Updated June 2007- A jury award of $5.5 million was entered in federal court in West Palm to the father of a man who died while wearing a Duragesic patch . The patch, made by a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, distributes time-released dos

Advances in radiation therapy have dramatically improved medical practice today. CT scans and nuclear medical exams allow physicians the capacity to pinpoint and diagnose a number of health problems. But radiation in these machines can be a risk to patients. Americans are being exposed to more amounts of radiatio

Updated June 2007- Thousands of rescue workers that responded to the World Trade Center disaster are now struggling with serious respiratory and gastrointestinal problems, rare cancers , and emotional issues such as anxiety and depression. A number of others have died from serious health complications.

Study Reveals Costs of Treating Diabetes Updated 2007- The National Changing Diabetes Program ( NCDP ), based on sampling data from 2005, concluded that one out of every eight U.S. federal dollars goes toward treating diabetes. The study found that federal health authorities spent in fiscal year 20

India and China have become major suppliers of low-cost drugs and drug ingredients to America. Even with this explosion of manufacturing overseas, the FDA does not conduct enough quality-assurance inspections. Over the past seven years the FDA has conducted only 200 or so inspections on plants in these co

Avandia Warnings Ignored by FDA Avandia , a drug for patients with diabetes, was approved on May 25, 1999. The drug was approved because it was shown to be effective in reducing blood sugar levels. Even before the drug was approved, however, there were warnings that revealed that the drug may increase the

Oklahoma Women May Be Subject of Police Misconduct A woman in Oklahoma recently died after she received shocks from a taser gun administered by police. Milisha Thompson, 35, was already handcuffed and on the ground when she received the shocks. The incident, captured on a surveillance camera, shows

E. Coli Tainted Beef Prompts Recall Updated June 2007- Following an alert on June 3 rd, 2007, about a potential E. coli contamination, the United Food Group in California has recalled over 5.7 million pounds of fresh and frozen beef. Initially the recall included only 75,000 pounds of ground

Although the Injuryboard website had initially reported that a young boy had been killed by a car because of Heelys shoes, it now appears that those facts may be in dispute. According to the police in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, twelve-year old Ryan Carmichael was crossing the street to get the mail

As we approach the one year anniversary of the approval of Gardasil by the FDA (June 8, 2006), adverse health reports are coming in from around the world about the vaccine intended for young teenage girls to prevent cervical cancers.