Current Events

Fearing the spread of a meningitis outbreak that has caused seven people at Princeton University to be hospitalized this year, university officials have warned students to stop sharing drinks and to avoid kissing. Bright orange posters urge students to “keep healthy and carry on,” and red cups labeled “Mine. Not Yours” serve as reminders not to share drinks at parties.

Despite the campaign, a male student last week was found to have bacterial meningitis, nearly eight months after the outbreak’s first case, in which a female student returned from spring break showing symptoms. Although the previous six patients have recovered from the disease, in which bacteria cause infections that can maim or kill people within hours, the university’s leaders are considering a stronger step to halt the outbreak: distributing a vaccine not approved for use in the United States.

Click here to read more.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) will formally announce on Nov. 19 a settlement of more than $4 billion aimed at resolving thousands of lawsuits over its recalled hip implants, three people familiar with the matter said.

U.S. District Judge David Katz in Toledo, Ohio, will hear the settlement’s terms presented by attorneys for artificial-hip recipients and J&J, the world’s largest maker of medical products, said the people, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

Click here to read more.

Johnson & Johnson has tentatively agreed to a settlement that could reach up to $4 billion to resolve thousands of lawsuits filed by patients injured by a flawed all-metal replacement hip, said two lawyers briefed on the plan.

The tentative plan, which must win court approval, represents one of the largest payouts for product liability claims involving a medical device.

A spokeswoman for the company’s DePuy Orthopaedics unit declined to comment on the possibility of a settlement. An announcement about the plan is expected in the coming days, the lawyers said.

Click here to read more.

We all like to think that the car we drive around is safe and reliable. But unfortunately, we sometimes end up with a vehicle that has a malfunctioning part.

In 2012, manufacturers filed more than 650 safety recalls, affecting more than 17.8 million vehicles, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Click here to read more.

A California company has recalled more than 90 tons of prepackaged salads and sandwich wraps because they may be contaminated with a toxin-producing strain of E. coli, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

Glass Onion Catering in Richmond, Calif., is recalling ready-to-eat salads and wraps with cooked chicken and ham that may contain E. coli O157:H7, the department's Food Safety and Inspection Service said. The products have been linked to 26 ill patients in three states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, most of them in California.

Click here to read more.

Chrysler is recalling about 1.2 million Ram trucks to fix front-end problems that could lead to steering troubles.

The company announced three recalls on Friday. It wants to inspect the trucks and says only 453,000 will likely need repairs.

Chrysler said Friday in a statement that it knows of six crashes and two injuries involving the 2008 to 2012 Ram 2500 and 3500 trucks that are being recalled, and one crash with no injuries from the other recalled models.

Click here to read more.

The Food and Drug Administration announced Sunday that USPlabs is recalling certain OxyElite Pro sports supplement products that have been linked to an outbreak of liver illnesses, including one death.

The action follows a letter the FDA sent Wednesday notifying the Dallas-based dietary supplement maker that if it did not recall the supplements voluntarily, the agency would order the company to stop distribution of the products immediately and notify other distributors and retailers to stop selling them.

Click here to read more.

Viola Purcell can't even drink a bottle of water without choking. She twitches uncontrollably and has trouble breathing and eating. She says it all started after her doctor prescribed a generic drug for acid reflux.

"I was a happy person and I liked to smile, and I can't smile now," she said, breaking into tears. "There's no smile in there."

She took the prescription drug, metoclopramide, for more than five years, thinking it was safe.

"The doctor told me that 'this is going to make you feel better,'" Purcell said. "But it didn't; it only got worse."

Click here to read more.

Two sisters from Mount Horeb say a cervical cancer vaccine shut down their ovaries and almost certainly left them unable to get pregnant, a claim scheduled for a hearing Thursday and Friday in federal court in Washington, D.C.

Madelyne Meylor, 20, and Olivia Meylor, 19, say their premature ovarian failure came from the vaccine against human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Click here to read more.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)’s Janssen unit pleaded guilty to misbranding its anti-psychotic medication Risperdal as part of a $2.2 billion settlement with U.S. prosecutors, the largest for a single drug.

The company, based in Titusville, New Jersey, entered the guilty plea today to one misdemeanor at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Timothy Savage in Philadelphia.

Click here to read more.

The former chief executive officer of New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery, John R. Reynolds, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for taking almost $300,000 in kickbacks from a subordinate and lying about it, federal prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. sentenced Reynolds today in a hearing in Manhattan federal court, the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

Click here to read more.