Following the deaths of three babies within a two-week period, authorities in Holland have banned a batch of Prevenar, also known as Prevnar, reported Reuters. The babies all died within two weeks of receiving the vaccination.

“On average about five to 10 deaths are reported annually after babies get vaccines,” said a spokeswoman for the Dutch health institute RIVM, quoted Reuters. “We now have three cases in a short period, that is unusual and the reason for suspending the batch,” she added, noting that RIVM is looking into the infants’ cause of death. (more…)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers that Stiff Nights, a product marketed as a dietary supplement for sexual enhancement, contains an ingredient that can dangerously lower blood pressure and is illegal. Stiff Nights contains sulfoaildenafil, a chemical similar to sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra.

Following a consumer complaint, the FDA determined that the product contains sulfoaildenafil and warns that sulfoaildenafil may interact with prescription drugs known as nitrates, including nitroglycerin, and may cause dangerously low blood pressure. (more…)

Light cigarettes are not all they’re cracked up to be when it comes to quitting smoking, according to an emerging study, says WebMD. Experts found that the switch to what Web MD described as “light,” “ultra-light,” or “low-tar” cigarettes could actually undermine well-intentioned smoking cessation attempts.

Most cigarettes—about 84 percent, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)—are labeled as lower in tar and nicotine, reported WebMD. (more…)

Drug giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) continues to make news with a Justice Department investigation into accusations of Medicaid Fraud, announced Business Week. The Justice Department recently settled with Omnicare over kickback allegations to the tune of $112 million.

The massive settlement concerned kickbacks involving the United States’ biggest nursing home pharmacy, Omnicare and generic drug maker IVAX Pharmaceuticals and is just a part of a larger probe into potential Medicaid fraud by Big Pharma, said Business Week. Some feel the investigation focuses on industry paying consumer drug providers for special treatment, according to Business Week. The profits are believed to compromise patient care and increase costs. (more…)

Bisphenol A—BPA—the ubiquitous, estrogen-mimicking chemical that hardens plastic has, according to another emerging study, been found in some popular canned foods, said FoxNews.

According to Consumer Reports’ December issue, it “tested soups, juice, tuna, and green beans,” said FoxNews, and discovered “19 name-brand foods” contain some level of BPA. As we have previously noted, BPA can be found in everything from baby bottles, sippy cups, water bottles, aluminum can linings, eyeglasses, and cars, to DVD and CD cases and some dental sealants. BPA can also be found in appliances and windshields; on recyclable bottles, BPA, as a component, can be verified if the item contains recycling number 7. We recently wrote that BPA has also been found to be present in common paper receipts. With BPA turning up in carbonless copy and thermal imaging papers, its common usage has grown exponentially. (more…)

Diet sodas have been linked to a reduction in kidney functioning, according to an emerging study cited by WebMD. While diet sodas may help in keeping caloric intake down, the beverages might be doubling the risk of kidney function decline, said WebMD.

The research looked at women who consumed two or more diet sodas daily and found they experienced a 30 percent decrease in “a measure of kidney function” based on a large follow-up, said WebMD, referring to research that was just presented at the yearly meeting of the American Society of Nephrology in San Diego, California. “Thirty percent is considered significant,” said researcher Julie Lin, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a staff physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, quoted WebMD. She noted that this is “especially true,” given that most participants began the study with what were considered well-preserved kidney function levels. (more…)

Emergency responders who participated in Ground Zero rescue and recovery efforts following the 9/11 terrorist attacks tend to suffer from asthma at about a two-fold rate compared to the rest of the U.S. population, according to a new study detailed by Science Daily.

Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers presented the new asthma data, said Science Daily, at CHEST 2009, which is the 75th annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), in San Diego, California. (more…)

A significant breakthrough in Chinese drywall litigation was announced this week that will do much to streamline the process for suing a major drywall manufacturer. To take advantage of this one time offer made by Knauf Plasterboard (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., Chinese drywall claimants must sign on to an omnibus class action lawsuit by December 2, 2009.

According to The New Orleans Times- Picayune, Knauf Plasterboard has agreed not to demand that plaintiffs included in that lawsuit abide by international rules in serving legal papers. Under the agreement, the omnibus lawsuit must be filed by December 9. (more…)

We’ve long been saying so, and the issue has made headlines many times in recent months; now PLoS Medicine is writing that ties between Big Pharma and health professionals—are not sufficiently broad, reports Science Daily. In this case, the issue concerns Australian reporting standards; however, the problem has been noted in a variety of global sites, including the United States.

David Henry, from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto, Canada, and colleagues, looked at information released by Medicines Australia, which is that country’s “pharmaceutical industry representative body,” said Science Daily. Since 2007, Medicines Australia has been mandated to report information from “industry-sponsored function and educational event for health professionals,” explained Science Daily. The information must also include the event’s venue, cost, attendees, and “hospitality” provided, but does not require disclosure regarding speaker names, finances transacted between industry and speakers, and the companies’ part in selecting a speaker, noted Science Daily. (more…)

Last week, we wrote about the fifth reported botched surgery at the same hospital since 2007. Rhode Island Hospital—the largest hospital in that state—allegedly operated on the wrong body part, described as a wrong-site surgery, five times.

Now, says the Associated Press (AP), the hospital has been fined $150,000 and mandated to take what the AP described as “the extraordinary step” of putting in video cameras in its operating rooms, citing Rhode Island health officials. The unprecedented move involves a nonsurgical team clinician observing hospital surgeries for one year, monitoring if surgeons are marking operation sites, and taking time outs to determine if the correct body part has been located for surgery, said the AP. (more…)