Current Events

Companies that make reusable, snakelike cameras to examine patients internally should begin making disposable versions, because the current models cannot be properly sterilized and have spread infections from one patient to another, the Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday.

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A judge in Oklahoma on Monday ruled that Johnson & Johnson had intentionally played down the dangers and oversold the benefits of opioids, and ordered it to pay the state $572 million in the first trial of a drug manufacturer for the destruction wrought by prescription painkillers.

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(Reuters) - Tyson Foods Inc is recalling nearly 40,000 pounds of its Weaver chicken patties after some consumers found pieces of rubber in the product, the no. 1 U.S. meat processor said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday classified the recall as Class 1, the strictest form of recall where use of the product may cause serious health consequences or death.

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Bayer AG is proposing to pay as much as $8 billion to settle more than 18,000 U.S. lawsuits alleging its Roundup herbicide causes cancer, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

An agreement, which could take months to work out, would ease investor pressure over massive litigation exposure the German drug and chemical giant took on with its purchase of the weedkiller’s maker, Monsanto Co. The fallout has erased more than $30 billion in market value, prompted an unprecedented shareholder vote of no confidence in the company’s management and fueled speculation about a breakup.

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At least six patients at a cancer facility in New York were sickened with a rare blood infection after a nurse allegedly tampered with injectable opioids, diluting the medication with tap water.

Six patients at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, N.Y., were infected with a bacterium known as Sphingomonas paucimobilis between June and July of 2018, according to a New England Journal of Medicine report. Three of the six were diagnosed within one week of each other, it noted.

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Medical professionals at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Upstate New York knew something wasn’t right. Within one week, three patients had been diagnosed with the same rare blood infection.

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In 2011, a group of influential dermatologists, most of whom had financial ties to drug companies, issued a set of national guidelines for treating psoriasis.

It said a class of immune-suppressing drugs could be used to clear up mild skin issues before weddings or other special events....

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It’s no secret that medical malpractice costs the healthcare system billions of dollars every year—from insurance costs to paid claims to legal fees—not to mention the toll it takes on physicians and patients. Part of stopping malpractice is identifying why it happens and where it happens most often. A new study from medical liability insurer Coverys is hoping to do just that for emergency department claims.

The report, “A Dose of Insight — Emergency Department Risks: Through the Lens of Liability Claims” is based on an analysis of ED-related closed medical professional liability claims at Coverys across a five-year period from 2014 to 2018.

July 1 (UPI) -- Objects like catheters, needles and other indwelling devices are responsible for many of the infection problems in hospitals, according to a new study.

In fact, new research published on Monday in American Journal of Critical Care, showed catheters and similar devices cause about 25 percent of hospital infections.

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At least 12 percent of preventable errors caused permanent disability or death, according to a review of studies involving over 300,000 patients.

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A California judge on Thursday reduced a $2 billion jury verdict, slashing the award for a couple who blamed Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based weed killer, Roundup, for their cancer to $86.7 million.

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