The FDA did suggest a "black box" warning, the most severe, to warn consumers about the risk. Further suggestions included discouraging joint use of Avandia and insulin, as this also increases heart attack risk. FDA experts also recommended that the drug be investigated further.

In early 2007, Avandia was the second highest grossing diabetes drug in the United States. An analysis of 42 studies showed that there is a 43 percent higher chance of heart attack risk with diabetic patients taking Avandia than those taking any other or no diabetes medication. Avandia is used to control the body's blood sugar by increasing sensitivity to insulin. Before the studies, this treatment was commonly perceived to decrease heart risks already associated with diabetes. Diabetes affects more than 18 million Americans today.

Congress is in the process of overhauling the FDA's decision, and points to the Avandia situation as evidence of the FDA's inability to handle the safety risks of drugs that have been approved for the market.

In the case of Avandia, it appears that the FDA is too lax in dealing with hazards associated with certain drugs. Conversely, many poor countries around the world are not even close to lax with their policies surrounding drugs that should be deemed necessities. Morphine is one prime example, as a pain reliever. Countless poor countries find it extremely difficult to secure this drug even in the cases of uncontrollable cancerous tumors that cause excruciating pain. However, even in these cases, morphine is not allowed due to an intense fear of patient addiction.

Is the FDA too lax in their drug safety control policies? Are foreign countries not lax enough?

See the following articles for more information:
Avandia:
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20036086/from/ET/
Morphine:
www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/health/11pain.html
www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/health/10pain.html

Residents at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, have their very own grim reaper...in the form of a feline. Oscar the cat displays an uncanny accuracy in predicting death of the residents on the third floor dementia unit of the nursing home. He has been accurate in 25 cases, beating even a doctor in his predictions of death. Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, an expert in terminal illness care, had predicted the death one patient. which turned out to be ten hours too early. Oscar wouldn't stay in the room until some hours later, when the patient had two hours left to live.

Most of the families appreciate Oscar's accuracy in allowing them to say a final farewell to their loved ones. Although the cat recently received a wall plaque commending his "compassionate hospice care", animal experts say that his behavior could be driven by a desire for personal comforts, such as heated blankets placed on dying patients. Or, it could be due to a keen sense of smell or attentiveness to unconscious changes in behavior in those surrounding him upon impending death. Regardless, Oscar the cat's behavior is another example of the powers of animals that we have not yet fully comprehended, but find so phenomenal.

For more: visit  edition.cnn.com/2007/US/07/25/death.cat.ap/index.html#cnnSTCText

Another recent salmonella outbreak was traced to the makers of Veggie Booty, a snack that was recalled and is produced by a Sea Cliff company. The FDA recalled the product June 28 after it received over 50 cases of salmonella poisoning in 17 states from  consumers who had eaten Veggie Booty. The salmonella may have been a result of additional seasoning added to the product after it had been cooked.

Numerous lawsuits have since been filed against the makers of Veggie Booty. One such case was filed by the parents of an 18 month old named Xavier Allen from Indiana in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. The suit seeks at least $75,000 in damages.

Salmonella can cause serious infections. Some symptoms include vomiting, fever, nausea, and abdominal pain.

Food poisoning is a serious problem that faces consumers today. How do you think we should face this problem? Should the FDA impose more stringent regulations?

See the following articles for more information on food poisoning and salmonella.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_poisoning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmonella

Previously, only women over 35 had amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling tests in addition to the typical blood test and ultrasound for detection of the disease. This precaution for older women is associated with higher risk of having babies that test positive for Down's.

To provide mothers with the option of prevention, new guidelines published in January by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (ACOG) urge all women to have the same comprehensive tests at their 20th week or earlier. Before the amendment, younger mothers were only screened at their 20th week with blood tests.

The new guidelines are mostly advantageous. The new tests are more accurate and give mothers more time to decide what to do. However, they also carry a slight risk of miscarriage, and about 80% of women who test positive for Down's have abortions. The latter statistic is particularly unsettling to advocates of Americans with the genetic disease.

In addition, caution must also be exercised in believing the doctor's statistics. In their zeal to catch Down syndrome early in the mother's pregnancy, many Arizona clinics have cited a figure that as many as one in four  40 year olds has a baby with the disease. Rather, academic research suggests the number is one in one hundred.

For more information, see www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm

"Boston Scientific Corp. said it agreed to settle all pending federal lawsuits against the company alleging harm from faulty defibrillators and pacemakers for $195 million, well below the sum the company had estimated as its likely liability.

The company acquired liability for the suits through its 2006 acquisition of Guidant Corp., which was forced to recall more than 100,000 cardiac-assist devices in 2005. One of its defibrillator models occasionally failed to deliver lifesaving shocks to the heart when needed.

Several attorneys representing plaintiffs declined to comment, saying they were subject to a judge's order not to speak.

Guidant already has settled some cases brought on behalf of patients who died. The vast majority of pending cases -- about 1,850, covering more than 5,000 individuals -- were brought by patients who had their devices removed because of the Guidant recalls, complaining that the company waited too long before informing them and doctors of the flaw."

For Full article, http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB118436796413866300-lMyQjAxMDE3ODE0NTMxNjU3Wj.html

Read the full article at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19712822/from/ET/

Jeffrey B. Killino, a personal-injury lawyer from Philadelphia, said the company came forward only after it was named as a defendant in a lawsuit, filed in May, involving an accident in which two construction workers were killed and a third was severely injured when a van rolled over. The lawsuit contended that the accident was caused by tread separation in a Hangzhou Zhongce tire.

Earlier, an ambulance in New Mexico rolled over after a Hangzhou Zhongce tire came apart, though there were no significant injuries, according to documents supplied by Foreign Tire Sales to the federal safety agency."

Read the full article in the NY Times.

And 48,000 to 119,000 hospital patients a year may be dying from methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, far more than previously thought, the study suggests.

The Tribune obtained the results during the weekend from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control & Epidemiology (APIC), which is releasing the report publicly on Monday. The author is Dr. William Jarvis, former acting director of the hospital infections program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Read the full article in the Chicago Tribune.

They have inside information on the prescribing habits of virtually every doctor in the United States. Pharmaceutical and device manufacturers buy this information from the American Medical Association and from companies that match the AMA's data with pharmacy records.

While such practices have gone on for years, the issue is expected to be a hot topic at this week's annual meeting of the AMA in Chicago, with some groups planning to protest during the gathering at the Hilton Chicago.

"Doctors are not aware that companies are out there that know every prescription a doctor prescribes," said Dr. John Santa, an internist at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center and consultant to the Prescription Project, which is part of a coalition trying to curb drug companies' access to doctor prescribing information."

Read the full article in the Chicago Tribune.

But Thao's intravenous delivery of an epidural pain medication was an unusually public example of a quiet but dangerous health care problem: tubing misconnections.

At least 1,200 times in the past nine years, U.S. hospital workers have inadvertently given patients solutions meant to flow through one tube -- an IV, an epidural, a feeding tube, a bladder catheter, a blood line -- into another tube, frequently causing harm and sometimes death. The true tally is much greater."

Read the full article in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Using some money intended to fight bioterrorism, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention paid out more than $1.7 million since 2001 to get producers to include public health messages in television shows and movies, according to the report, issued today by Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican. One consultant is a former CDC employee, the report said.

The Atlanta-based agency last week asked for more money and an airplane to help with the fight against tuberculosis after the travels of an infected man called attention to gaps in controlling the disease. Coburn, a doctor who sits on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said the CDC has mismanaged the $9.2 billion budget it already has, while infections such as with the AIDS virus keep growing."

Read the full article at Bloomberg.com.

In January, Hood agreed to drop State Farm from a lawsuit his office filed against several insurance companies. Hood did that after State Farm settled with lawyers for homeowners on a $50 million payout to about 35,000 southern Mississippi policyholders who hadn't sued the company but could have their claims reopened.

But the pact fell apart after a federal judge refused to endorse it. Hood has said he didn't negotiate the terms of that settlement and shared the judge's concerns about the deal."

Read the full article at Crain's Chicago Business.

"We had to do something good that would prevent this from ever happening to a child again," Ms. King says. When the hospital offered a financial settlement, Ms. King, a former fashion designer who had become a stay-at-home mom, asked Johns Hopkins to take some of the money back to start a children's safety program. She also created the Josie King Foundation to fund safety initiatives at other hospitals.

Now, to take the message to a broader audience of both consumers and medical professionals, she is launching a new Web site, josieking.org, with her own blog on patient safety; an online community where families can post their medical-error experiences and provide emotional support; advice from medical and legal experts on how to avoid error and deal with it when occurs; and resources for hospitals seeking to improve safety."

Read the full article on the Wall Street Journal Online.

Read the FDA's full release here.

Three days after the surgery, Lewis should be feeling better. Instead, despite doses of a powerful painkiller called Toradol, the boy is racked with agonizing pain -- "five on a scale of five," he pantingly tells his mother, Helen Haskell, an archaeologist. Oddly, the pain seems centered in his abdomen, not his chest. Nurses are certain the boy is suffering from gas, a diagnosis reinforced earlier that evening by Dr. Craig Murray, the chief resident on call. Dr. Murray had stopped by and prescribed a suppository for what he believed was probably constipation, a common problem after surgery."