Officials Puzzle Over Abortion Pill Deaths

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050724/ap_on_he_me/abortion_pill

LOS ANGELES - Federal health investigators are baffled: Why have four California women died from a bloodstream infection after using a controversial abortion pill?

Two of the deaths — one this year and one last year — were reported last week by the Food and Drug Administration. The other two deaths occurred in 2003. All were caused by sepsis, a bloodstream infection, although the women didn't have all the usual symptoms for sepsis, such as fever, health officials say. Only one other U.S. death linked to the drug has been reported since it went on the market in 2000, and the cause of death in that case was different.

"On the surface, this appears unusual," said Dr. Marc Fischer, a medical epidemiologist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "That's why we're investigating."

<snip>

The FDA said it believes Mifeprex is safe enough to stay on the market and that there is no proof it caused the deaths. However, the label will be updated to alert women and doctors in more detail to unusual, dangerous infections that are not always accompanied by fever.

[liberaliraqvet26]

1. I smell the "Christain" right all over this...

they are terrified of this pill

[Dover]

7. ......terrorists in our midst. n.t

[brainshrub]

11. Self deleted.

I didn't write anything inflamatory, but it was about RU-486. The OP is not about RU-486.

[tanyev]

2. Tainted pills?

Is that even possible?

[daleo]

3. Yesterday I read there were 5 deaths in 460,000 uses of the drug

Which is roughly 1 per 100,000. I recall reading that the overall death rate due to complications from pregnancy and childbirth is about 8 in 100,000. So, tragic as any deaths are, this is something of a red herring.

[liberaliraqvet26]

4. its getting a lot of press though

[daleo]

12. You're right about that.

It fits in with the general right-wing message of the corporate press, especially its recent focus on matters that can be spun into a religious issue.

Even without that, the press is painfully poor at accurately portraying any story that requires a bit of mathematical sophistication, such as the trade off of risk between taking this pill and the alternatives.

[leftchick]

5. I agree

It is like the abortion = breast cancer "link".

[liberaliraqvet26]

6. or how ineffective condoms are and

how spongebob is gay

[patdem]

8. This is NOT an abortion pill...the headline is inflamatory...

This is the morning after pill! It stops the egg from attaching to the uterus..you cannot have an abortion without a egg saftely planted into the uterus..this is BULLSHIT!

[liberaliraqvet26]

9. thanks for clearing that up...

I didn't know that

[leftchick]

10. This is RU-486

aka: the abortion pill. I believe you are thinking of "plan B" hormone pills which are indeed not an abortion but they prevent implantation.

[LisaL]

13. Nope. It is an abortion pill, not a morning after pill.

This pill is taken after the woman already knows she is pregnant.