| Debate again shadows Accutane
Virtually no one opposes the goal of the mandatory new federal program governing the use of Accutane: to prevent pregnant women from taking the potent acne drug, approved in 1982, because it causes serious birth defects. That is where the consensus about the unusually restrictive six-month-old program known as iPledge ends. The program requires registration of all parties: wholesalers who sell it, pharmacists who dispense it, doctors who prescribe it and, above all, patients who take the drug. Public health officials say such strict regulation is necessary because years of progressively stronger voluntary programs failed to prevent pregnancy in users of the medicine, a treatment of last resort for severe scarring acne. Most of the estimated 200,000 Americans who take the drug generically known as isotretinoin each year are younger than 30; half are female.
DR. DONOHUE: FOR YOUR GOOD HEALTH: Scoliotic daughter fears pregnancy
Q: I am the mother of an only child. She is 31 and has been married for one year. My daughter is afraid to become pregnant because she believes she'll have difficulty carrying a child due to her spinal curvature. She's also afraid that carrying a baby will make her scoliosis worse. An orthopedic doctor followed her in her teens and didn't suggest treatment since her scoliosis was "borderline." I know she wants to be a mom, and I want to be a grandmom. What do you say? A: Scoliosis is a curving of the spine to one side. The curve can be in the upper back, the lower back or in both upper and lower back. The degree of curvature correlates with the severity of symptoms and with the limits of physical activity. The degree is assessed through X-rays. Your daughter had mild scoliosis as a teenager.
Pregnant bird flu patient may add to information on Tamiflu
A pregnant woman in Indonesia who shows symptoms of bird flu agreed to take Tamiflu. The medicine, recommended by the World Health Organization to treat the lethal virus, may be a risk to her unborn fetus, a doctor said. The 35-year-old woman, two months pregnant, began a course of Roche Holding AG's antiviral to treat an infection possibly caused by the H5N1 avian influenza strain, said Luhur Soeroso, a doctor at the Adam Malik Hospital in Medan on Sumatra island. Clinicians have had little experience treating H5N1 in pregnant women, and if the woman has the disease, her case may provide needed information. There is no adequate data on the use of Tamiflu, known scientifically as oseltamivir, in pregnant women, according to the WHO. Animal studies don't indicate direct or indirect harmful effects on pregnancy or fetal development, the health agency said in March.
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