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If you’ve ever suffered from a urinary tract infection then you know the pain associated with the condition. A urinary tract infection (UTI) is an infection in any part of your urinary system, your kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra. Most infections involve the lower urinary tract, the bladder and the urethra. A new study shows that a popular class of oral antibiotics prescribed to treat urinary symptoms doubles the risk of experiencing permanent nerve damage, according to new research published in the journal Neurology. The most popular of these drugs, ciprofloxacin, mocifloxacin and levofloxacin, are sold under the trade names Cipro, Avelox and Levaquin.
If you have taken these drugs you may not have realized the danger. Men who are on fluoroquinolones, especially first-time users, were twice as likely to experience peripheral neuropathy as men who were not. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year ordered a warning be added to the labelling on all fluoroquinolone drugs after receiving anecdotal reports of peripheral neuropathy, which causes muscle weakness, numbness and pain. “These drugs are still being prescribed and physicians need to know not to use these drugs unless they have to,” said the group who published the study.
Another dangerous drug that is still on the market and currently being prescribed is the pain patch Fentanyl (Duragesic). This pain patch is very dangerous even if prescribed properly. A respected pharmacist said there’s a small margin for error between a dose that is helpful and a dose that can kill.
The drug soaks out of the patch into what is called the “skin depot” and then takes as long as 18 hours to diffuse into the blood stream. That means if you remove the patch it may still be too late to prevent receiving a fatal dose. This is why a tiny leak in a Duragesic pain patch can be so dangerous. If you have a leak, the skin depot can fill up very fast and then kill you.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued several public warnings but the FDA still has not taken the drug off the market. The unnecessary loss of life continues and our Virginia (VA) personal injury law firm has handled several fentanyl patch overdose wrongful death cases
CT