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AP Health NewsBrief at 4:33 p.m. EST
(AP Online Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) FDA panel recommends ban on the painkiller DarvonWASHINGTON (AP) _ Government advisers are recommending a ban on Darvon, a painkiller that's been around for 50 years. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 14-12 Friday to recommend withdrawing Darvon after a hearing on its risks and benefits. The drug was first approved in 1957, when there were few alternatives for pain except aspirin and powerful narcotics. Now mainly marketed as Darvocet, which includes a dose of acetaminophen, the drug remains one of the top 25 most commonly prescribed medications. More than 20 million prescriptions were written in 2007.
Gov't launches criminal probe in peanut recallWASHINGTON (AP) _ The government has opened a criminal investigation into the Georgia peanut-processing plant at the center of the national salmonella outbreak, federal officials said Friday. Stephen Sundlof, head of the Food and Drug Administration's food safety center, said the Justice Department will join FDA investigators in looking into possible criminal violations. The Peanut Corp. of America plant shipped allegedly tainted products to dozens of other food companies. "It is an open investigation at this time," said Sundlof. "We can't really talk much about the investigation itself."
Family: Octuplets' mother has 6 other childrenWHITTIER, Calif. (AP) _ The woman who gave birth to octuplets this week already had six children but refused the option of reducing the number of embryos she was carrying last year, her mother said. Angela Suleman said good news for her daughter is all the babies appear healthy. "I looked at those babies. They are so tiny and so beautiful," Suleman told The Los Angeles Times on Thursday.
AP Exclusive: Bad peanuts found before outbreakWASHINGTON (AP) _ The government disclosed new details Friday about the discovery of contaminated peanuts sent abroad by the same plant linked to a national salmonella outbreak, acknowledging a shipment containing a "filthy, putrid or decomposed substance" was returned to the U.S. in April _ months earlier than reflected in a federal tracking database. The rejected shipment _ coming across a bridge between New York and Canada _ was logged by the Food and Drug Administration but never tested by federal inspectors, according to government records. The incident took place in mid-September, the records show, weeks before the earliest signs of the outbreak.
UN: Cholera cases in Zimbabwe top 60,000HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) _ The United Nations says an out-of-control cholera epidemic has sickened more than 60,000 Zimbabweans since August. Experts had predicted the crisis would peak at 60,000 cases, but the U.N. humanitarian affairs agency says 60,401 cases and 3,161 deaths have now been recorded. Experts believe many more have been sickened without being counted because so few Zimbabweans are able to get to hospitals.
Air Force to train combat docs to use acupunctureWASHINGTON (AP) _ Chief Warrant Officer James Brad Smith broke five ribs, punctured a lung and shattered bones in his hand and thigh after falling more than 20 feet from a Black Hawk helicopter in Baghdad last month. While he was recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, his doctor suggested he add acupuncture to his treatment to help with the pain.
Congress to hold hearing on peanut butter recallWASHINGTON (AP) _ A congressman has announced the first public hearing on the salmonella outbreak that's being blamed on tainted peanut butter. California Democrat Henry Waxman says he wants to focus on the Georgia peanut processing plant at the center of the investigation, which has led to a massive recall. More than 500 people have gotten sick in the outbreak, and at least eight may have died because of salmonella infections.
Democrats near win on child health billWASHINGTON (AP) _ Democrats are edging closer to giving President Barack Obama a big victory on health care. The Senate was expected to vote Thursday on legislation that would spend $31.5 billion more on a children's health insurance program over the next 4 1/2 years. The additional money would help about 4 million uninsured children get coverage and draw 2.4 million more kids into the program who otherwise could get private coverage.
In peanut checks, gaps for salmonella to sneak byATLANTA (AP) _ Food regulators didn't consider salmonella a threat to most peanut products before they traced an outbreak to a peanut butter plant in Georgia two years ago. Officials in the nation's top peanut-producing state promptly began checking for the bacteria during routine inspections, and everything went fine for about a year. Then this month, investigators zeroed in on another Georgia plant while probing a second bout of salmonella that began in the fall and has sickened some 500 people in 43 states, and may have contributed to at least eight deaths.
Study: Kidney donors do fine, no long-term issuesNEW YORK (AP) _ Donating a kidney doesn't appear to have any long-term health consequences for the donor, a reassuring study shows. Researchers at the University of Minnesota found those who gave up one of their two kidneys lived a normal life span and were as healthy as people in the general population. The donation also didn't raise the risk of having kidney failure later. Kidney donation has generally been considered safe, although with surgery, there are always risks. The new research of nearly 3,700 donors dating back more than four decades is the largest and longest study to look at long-term outcomes, said the researchers. They reported their findings in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
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