Current Events

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of soaps containing certain antibacterial chemicals on Friday, saying industry had failed to prove they were safe to use over the long term or more effective than using ordinary soap and water.

Another state and 18 more people are now included in a Hepatitis A outbreak linked to frozen, imported strawberries served in smoothies, bringing the totals to six states and 69 victims.

Vehicles Affected: Approximately 3,000 model-year 2015 Hyundai Genesis sedans manufactured between Feb. 1 and May 20, 2015, and equipped with a 7-inch TFT-LCD instrument cluster

Los Angeles congressman is calling for Japanese prosecutors to investigate Olympus Corp. for not warning American hospitals that its medical scope was transferring lethal bacteria to patients.

In an Aug. 29 letter, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) asked Secretary of State John Kerry to request that Japanese authorities probe the Tokyo-based manufacturer for civil or criminal misconduct.

The number of Americans hospitalized with heart infections caused by use of injected opioid drugs is on the rise, a new study indicates. Researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston said the finding is a disturbing outgrowth of a rising tide of opioid addiction in the United States.

You can add Suffolk County, N.Y., to the list of local and state governments that are filing lawsuits against the drug makers that market opioid painkillers.

The Long Island county on Wednesday accused several companies — Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, and Endo International, among others — of using deceptive marketing to downplay the risks of their painkillers.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) penned a letter with 19 other senators to the maker of EpiPens Tuesday, questioning the company's recent attempt to address the outrage over its price hikes. 

Former NFL players who objected to a $1 billion concussion settlement with the league will not take their case to the Supreme Court, clearing the way for retirees to get payouts, The Post has learned.

The group’s decision not to appeal means that former players who suffer from medical conditions linked to repeated head hits can start collecting benefits, likely within three or four months.

Google recently added a new head for its autonomous driving initiative and the Mountain View-based tech giant didn’t have to go far to find its new man—it poached him from Airbnb, located just up the road in San Francisco.

Vehicles Affected: Approximately 370,000 model-year 2013 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain SUVs

The Problem: The ball joints in the windshield wiper module may corrode and wear over time, possibly resulting in one or both of the windshield wipers becoming inoperative, which could reduce the driver's visibility and increase the risk of a crash

The Fix: The remedy for this problem was still being developed.

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New Jersey researchers said on Monday they had identified perhaps the first strain of E. Coli bacteria in the United States with mobile genes that make it resistant to two types of antibiotics now considered last-line defenses against superbugs.

Researchers said the strain of bacteria was found in a 76-year-old man who was treated in 2014 for a complicated urinary tract infection. Further analysis in 2016 showed the bacterium carried mcr-1, a gene that creates resistance to the last-ditch antibiotic colistin. It was also shown to carry blaNDM-5, a gene that blocks effectiveness of carbapenems, which are considered medicine's most reliable current antibiotics now that bacteria have found ways of outwitting other families of antibiotics.
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