Tuesday, August 15, 2006

FDA's Drug Directory Is Far Out of Date

A federal prescription drug directory fails to list more than 9,000 medications but catalogues tens of thousands that are no longer on the market, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services reported yesterday.

The omissions and errors limit the usefulness of the Food and Drug Administration directory, which is meant to help government agencies in handling recalls, identifying medication errors and controlling imports, the IG's report said.

The FDA said it generally agreed with the report and is working to fix the problems it identified, partly by making it easier for companies to submit listing information.

Federal law requires pharmaceutical companies to list with the FDA the prescription drugs they make. As of February 2005, the National Drug Code Directory listed 123,856 products.

An average increase of three degrees Celsius in the global temperature would mean the loss of forests and increased risks of flooding and wildfires, according to a study in yesterday's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers at the University of Bristol in England used computer models to predict changes that might occur in the world's water supply and forest and atmospheric composition if global temperatures rise by less than two degrees Celsius, two to three degrees Celsius, or greater than three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

If temperatures rise by more than three degrees over the next century, the Southeastern United States, Siberia and western Canada will be more susceptible to wildfires, according to the study.

A three-degree rise will cause the loss of forests in eastern China, Canada and Central America, and in the Amazon rain forest in South America, the researchers said. Such deforestation would increase the chances of flooding in northwestern South America and tropical Africa because there would be fewer trees to contain rainwater.

Scientists have discovered possible bird flu in two wild swans on the shore of Lake Erie -- but it does not appear to be the much-feared Asian strain that has ravaged poultry and killed at least 139 people elsewhere in the world.

It will take up to two weeks to confirm whether the seemingly healthy wild mute swans in Michigan really harbored the H5N1 virus.

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared that initial testing had ruled out the so-called highly pathogenic version of H5N1 but said the swans could have a relatively harmless, low-grade H5N1 strain instead.

That is the suspicion, making the agency's announcement almost a practice run for the day the Asian strain actually arrives.

"This is not the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus that has spread through much of other parts of the world," said Ron DeHaven, administrator of the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, adding: "We do not believe this virus represents a risk to human health."

Yesterday's announcement was the first reported hit from a new program to test up to 100,000 wild birds in an effort to catch the deadly Asian H5N1 virus if it does wing its way to North America, which the government thinks could happen this year.

-- From News Services