The Burden of Opioid-Related Mortality in the United States
Question What has been the burden of opioid-related deaths in the United States over a recent 15-year period?
Findings In this serial cross-sectional study, we found that the percentage of all deaths attributable to opioids increased 292% (from 0.4% to 1.5%) between 2001 and 2016, resulting in approximately 1.68 million person-years of life lost...
FDA reports five more deaths related to intragastric balloons
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday notified healthcare providers that it had received reports of five more deaths in patients using liquid-filled intragastric balloon systems to treat obesity, bringing the total death toll to 12 since 2016.
The balloon systems associated with the reports are made by ReShape Lifesciences and Apollo Endosurgery, the...
Four More People Die From Tainted Romaine Lettuce
Four more people have died from tainted romaine lettuce, federal health officials said Friday, bringing the total to five deaths related to a virulent strain of E. coli whose source has still not been located.
In addition, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated the case count: 197 people from 35 states...
Romaine lettuce made 172 people sick. Government investigators might never know why.
More than seven weeks after the start of a massive E. coli illness outbreak from romaine lettuce that sickened 172 people and caused romaine sales to plummet 45 percent, the Food and Drug Administration says it has no idea who or what caused the contamination.
Agency investigators have not managed to trace the affected lettuce...
No Verdict Reached in J&J Baby Powder Case
A South Carolina judge declared a mistrial in a case against Johnson & Johnson alleging that exposure to asbestos in its Johnson’s Baby Powder caused a woman’s fatal cancer.
Jurors in Darlington County state court were unable to reach a unanimous decision on Friday in the case brought by the husband of Bertila Boyd-Bostic, according...
Weak oversight of medical devices jeopardizes patient safety
Pain in her arm and lightheadedness sent Doris Jones to the emergency room at Savannah’s Memorial Health University Medical Center. A scan there soon revealed a shock. A filter placed in her bloodstream years before to catch clots had fractured, and debris was migrating toward her heart.
While the main part of the filter was...
FDA Slams Teething Medicines As Unsafe in Latest Consumer Public Health Push
One of the most significant balancing acts in medicine involves figuring out when—and which—treatments do more harm than good. It’s an issue that has implications for everything from the opioid crisis to the rising rate of ADHD drug overdoses to the generally lavish (and unaffordable) cost of American health care, which still favors the...
FDA issues health alert for clinical trials treating low PD-L1 bladder cancer with pembrolizumab or atezolizumab
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting health care professionals, oncology clinical investigators, and the public about decreased survival associated with the use of pembrolizumab or atezolizumab as single therapy (monotherapy) in clinical trials to treat patients with metastatic urothelial cancer who have not received prior therapy and who have low expression of...
Medicines were tainted with pesticides in sloppy drug facility, FDA warns
A drug manufacturer used the same uncleaned equipment to make pesticides as it did several human drugs, according to a warning letter released by the Food and Drug Administration. The result was that at least two medicines were contaminated with pesticides, the agency noted.
The FDA’s sternly worded letter charged that drug manufacturer Product Quest...
Fiat Chrysler recalling 51K Jeep Cherokees because of fire risk
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is recalling more than 51,000 of its 2018 Jeep Cherokees because of a fire risk.
The company said it is unaware of any accidents or injuries related to the defect, involving fuel-supply tubes that could leak. The campaign is limited to SUVs with a 2.4-liter engine and does not include the refreshed...
