Another Recall: Even as some of its recalled kids’ medicines make their way back to store shelves, Johnson & Johnson announced another recall — this one of about 4.8 million packages of children’s Benadryl tablets and junior-strength Motrin caplets, the WSJ reports. But J&J says the drugs, which were made at the company’s trouble-plagued Fort Washington plant before it was temporarily closed, aren’t dangerous and that the recall is aimed at drugstores and suppliers. Consumers can keep taking the drugs, the company says.
Scanning Concerns: A new kind of CT scanner used in dental care is raising concerns over the radiation it delivers during kids’ orthodontic treatment, which isn’t likely dangerous in itself but adds to cumulative exposure, the New York Times reports. Cone-beam scanners, which produce 3D images, have been aggressively marketed as a way to produce more precise images, but there are few guidelines for their use, the paper reports.
Inspection Gap?: The FDA doesn’t typically inspect medical-device manufacturing facilities when the devices are being produced for use in clinical trials, the WSJ reports, citing people involved in the process. That gap may be dangerous; participants in a study of a stent-graft used to treat aortic aneurysms had an unusually high rate of blood clots, and physicians involved in the study as well as the company say that was due to a manufacturing issue.
STD Snapshot: The picture on sexually transmitted diseases in the U.S. is mixed, with gonorrhea rates dipping to a record low in 2009 but rates of chlamydia and syphilis continuing to climb, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing new stats from the CDC. Herpes and HPV are far more common, but those three are the only STDs physicians are required to report to the government agency.
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