organization:u.s. centers for disease control and prevention

  • Purdue’s Sackler family fights ’inflammatory’ Massachusetts opioid case | Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-opioids-litigation/purdues-sackler-family-fights-inflammatory-massachusetts-opioid-case-idUSL1

    La nouvelle bataille juridique des Sackler : expliquer qu’ils étaient juste les crétins utiles de Purdue Pharma votant les budgets.

    BOSTON, April 2 (Reuters) - Members of the Sackler family behind OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP have asked a judge to toss a lawsuit by Massachusetts’ attorney general claiming they helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic, arguing it contains “misleading and inflammatory allegations.”

    The wealthy family in a motion on Monday argued that Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who brought the suit, had mischaracterized internal records to create the “false impression” they personally directed privately-held Purdue’s marketing of painkillers.

    Her lawsuit, filed in June in Suffolk County Superior Court and revised earlier this year to include new allegations, was the first by a state to try to hold Sackler family members personally responsible for contributing to the opioid epidemic.

    The case is among roughly 2,000 lawsuits filed by state and local governments seeking to hold Purdue and other pharmaceutical companies responsible for the U.S. opioid crisis.

    Opioids were involved in a record 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017 in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Healey’s complaint cites records to argue that family members, including Purdue’s former President Richard Sackler, personally directed deceptive opioid marketing while making $4.2 billion from Purdue from 2008 to 2016.

    They did so even after Purdue and three executives in 2007 pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the misbranding of OxyContin and agreed to pay a total of $634.5 million in penalties, the lawsuit said.

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    But in their motion, the Sacklers said nothing in the complaint supports allegations they personally took part in efforts to mislead doctors and the public about the benefits and addictive risks of opioids.

    They said their role was limited to that of typical corporate board members who participated in “routine” votes to ratify the management’s staffing and budget proposals.

    “Not a single document shows an individual director engaging in any unlawful conduct regarding the sale of prescription opioids or ordering anyone else to do so,” the Sacklers’ lawyers wrote.

    Healey’s office had no comment.

    At least 35 states have cases pending against Purdue. A handful have also named Sackler family members as defendants, including Richard Sackler, Theresa Sackler and Mortimer D.A. Sackler.

    Last week, Purdue reached its first settlement in the recent wave of lawsuits, agreeing with the Sacklers to a $270 million deal with Oklahoma’s attorney general. The Sacklers were not named as defendants in Oklahoma’s lawsuit.

    Purdue had been exploring filing for bankruptcy before the accord’s announcement, Reuters reported in early March. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston Editing by Noeleen Walder and Tom Brown)

    #Opioides #Sackler #Cynisme

  • Exclusive: OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma Exploring Bankruptcy - Sources | Investing News | US News
    https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2019-03-04/exclusive-oxycontin-maker-purdue-pharma-exploring-bankruptcy-sources
    https://www.usnews.com/dims4/USNEWS/a731fff/2147483647/thumbnail/970x647/quality/85/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcom-usnews-beam-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2F36%2F18d09dd2aa95

    By Mike Spector, Jessica DiNapoli and Nate Raymond

    (Reuters) - OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP is exploring filing for bankruptcy to address potentially significant liabilities from roughly 2,000 lawsuits alleging the drugmaker contributed to the deadly opioid crisis sweeping the United States, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

    The potential move shows how Purdue and its wealthy owners, the Sackler family, are under pressure to respond to mounting litigation accusing the company of misleading doctors and patients about risks associated with prolonged use of its prescription opioids.

    Purdue denies the allegations, arguing that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved labels for its opioids carried warnings about the risk of abuse and misuse associated with the pain treatments.

    Filing for Chapter 11 protection would halt the lawsuits and allow Purdue to negotiate legal claims with plaintiffs under the supervision of a U.S. bankruptcy judge, the sources said.

    Shares of Endo International Plc and Insys Therapeutics Inc, two companies that like Purdue have been named in lawsuits related to the U.S. opioid epidemic, closed down 17 percent and more than 2 percent, respectively, on Monday.

    More than 1,600 lawsuits accusing Purdue and other opioid manufacturers of using deceptive practices to push addictive drugs that led to fatal overdoses are consolidated in an Ohio federal court. Purdue has held discussions to resolve the litigation with plaintiffs’ lawyers, who have often compared the cases to widespread lawsuits against the tobacco industry that resulted in a $246 billion settlement in 1998.

    “We will oppose any attempt to avoid our claims, and will continue to vigorously and aggressively pursue our claims against Purdue and the Sackler family,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said. Connecticut has a case against Purdue and the Sacklers.

    BANKRUPTCY FILING NOT CERTAIN

    A Purdue bankruptcy filing is not certain, the sources said. The Stamford, Connecticut-based company has not made any final decisions and could instead continue fighting the lawsuits, they said.

    “As a privately-held company, it has been Purdue Pharma’s longstanding policy not to comment on our financial or legal strategy,” Purdue said in a statement.

    “We are, however, committed to ensuring that our business remains strong and sustainable. We have ample liquidity and remain committed to meeting our obligations to the patients who benefit from our medicines, our suppliers and other business partners.”

    Purdue faces a May trial in a case brought by Oklahoma’s attorney general that, like others, accuses the company of contributing to a wave of fatal overdoses by flooding the market with highly addictive opioids while falsely claiming the drugs were safe.

    Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump also said he would like to sue drug companies over the nation’s opioid crisis.

    Opioids, including prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl, were involved in 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017, a sixfold increase from 1999, according to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Purdue hired law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP for restructuring advice, Reuters reported in August, fueling concerns among litigants, including Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter, that the company might seek bankruptcy protection before the trial.

    Companies facing widespread lawsuits sometimes seek bankruptcy protection to address liabilities in one court even when their financial condition is not dire. California utility PG&E Corp filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after deadly wildfires raised the prospect of large legal bills even though its stock remained worth billions of dollars.

    DECEPTIVE MARKETING

    Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey in June became the first attorney general to sue not just Purdue but Sackler family members. Records in her case, which Purdue has asked a judge to dismiss, accused Sackler family members of directing deceptive marketing of opioids for years while enriching themselves to the tune of $4.2 billion.

    Some other states have since also sued the Sacklers. The Sacklers are currently discussing creating a nonprofit backed by family financial contributions to combat addiction and drug abuse, a person familiar with their deliberations said.

    The drugmaker downplayed the possibility of a bankruptcy filing in a Feb. 22 court filing in the Oklahoma case. “Purdue is still here - ready, willing and eager to prove in this Court that the State’s claims are baseless,” the company said in court papers.

    Sales of OxyContin and other opioids have fallen amid public concern about their addictive nature, and as restrictions on opioid prescribing have been enacted. OxyContin generated $1.74 billion in sales in 2017, down from $2.6 billion five years earlier, according to the most recent data compiled by Symphony Health Solutions.

    Purdue Chief Executive Officer Craig Landau has cut hundreds of jobs, stopped marketing opioids to physicians and moved the company toward developing medications for sleep disorders and cancer since taking the helm in 2017.

    In July, Purdue appointed a new board chairman, Steve Miller, a restructuring veteran who previously held leadership positions at troubled companies including auto-parts giant Delphi and the once-teetering insurer American International Group Inc.

    Mortimer D.A. Sackler no longer sits on Purdue’s board, according to a filing the company made with the Connecticut secretary of state late Monday.

    The Oklahoma case and other lawsuits seek damages from Purdue and other pharmaceutical companies accused of fueling the opioid crisis. In addition to lawsuits consolidated in an Ohio federal court, more than 300 cases are pending in state courts, and dozens of state attorneys general have sued manufacturers, including Purdue.

    Settlement discussions have not yet resulted in a deal.

    Purdue and three executives in 2007 pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the misbranding of OxyContin and agreed to pay a total of $634.5 million in penalties, according to court records.

    (Reporting by Mike Spector and Jessica DiNapoli in New York and Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

    Copyright 2019 Thomson Reuters.

    #Opioides #Sackler #Bankruptcy

  • Aetna May Have Exposed The HIV Status Of Thousands Of Clients | HuffPost
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/aetna-hiv-status-privacy_us_59a04965e4b0821444c2e1fb

    Insurance company Aetna Inc. inadvertently revealed the HIV status of potentially thousands of its customers when it sent information about HIV medication using an envelope with a mailing window large enough to read the letter’s contents, according to reports. Aetna sent the letter to about 12,000 people, Time reported.

    In addition to breaking privacy laws that give people the right to have their medical information protected, the breach also put people’s safety at risk, as HIV stigma is still strong in the U.S.

    Several of the affected clients said that family members and neighbors had learned that they were using HIV medication from these mailers, the letter from the nonprofit advocacy groups said.

    People have been denied medical and dental care on the basis of their HIV status. People have been fired or had job offers rescinded on the basis of their HIV status. Indeed, shame and fear about the infection prevents many from getting tested in the first place. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 15 percent of Americans with HIV don’t know that they have it.

    #Données_santé #Sécurité_informatique

  • Medical errors estimated to be third leading cause of U.S. deaths - Chicago Tribune
    http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/sc-medical-errors-health-0511-20160504-story.html

    Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States, a new study contends.

    Johns Hopkins University researchers analyzed several years of U.S. data and concluded that more than 250,000 people died each year due to medical errors.

    If confirmed, that would make medical errors the third leading cause of death among Americans. Currently, respiratory disease, which kills about 150,000 people a year, is listed as the third leading cause of death by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    However, “incidence rates for deaths directly attributable to medical care gone awry haven’t been recognized in any standardized method for collecting national statistics,” said Dr. Martin Makary, a professor of surgery at Baltimore-based Hopkins.

    The CDC’s data collection method does not classify medical errors separately on a death certificate, according to the study authors, who called for changes to that criteria.

    The medical coding system was designed to maximize billing for physician services, not to collect national health statistics, as it is currently being used,” Makary explained in a university news release.

    #causes_de_décès #erreur_médicale
    #finalité_de_la_collecte

  • U.S. gun deaths, 2004-2010 | OregonLive.com

    http://projects.oregonlive.com/ucc-shooting/gun-deaths

    Une carte de plus parmi les nombreuses sur cette question.

    The maps, based on data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, show the average number of gun deaths per 100,000 county residents from 2004 through 2010. Red is for counties with rates above the median for all counties; blue is below median. Gray indicates counties for which the CDC did not release data because the numbers were small. Read more about these maps and check out more related graphics

    #armements #armes #états-unis #meurtres

  • What are we doing to our children’s brains? | Ensia
    http://ensia.com/features/what-are-we-doing-to-our-childrens-brains

    The numbers are startling. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1.8 million more children in the U.S. were diagnosed with developmental disabilities between 2006 and 2008 than a decade earlier. During this time, the prevalence of autism climbed nearly 300 percent, while that of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder increased 33 percent. CDC figures also show that 10 to 15 percent of all babies born in the U.S. have some type of neurobehavorial development disorder. Still more are affected by neurological disorders that don’t rise to the level of clinical diagnosis.

    And it’s not just the U.S. Such impairments affect millions of children worldwide. The numbers are so large that Philippe Grandjean of the University of Southern Denmark and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Philip Landrigan of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York — both physicians and preeminent researchers in this field — describe the situation as a “pandemic.”

    While earlier and more assiduous diagnosis accounts for some of the documented increase, it doesn’t explain all of it, says Irva Hertz-Piccioto, professor of environmental and occupational health and chief of the University of California, Davis, MIND Institute. Grandjean and Landrigan credit genetic factors for 30 to 40 percent of the cases. But a significant and growing body of research suggests that exposure to environmental pollutants is implicated in the disturbing rise in children’s neurological disorders.

    What, exactly is going on? And what can we do about it?

    • U.S. needs to rethink Ebola infection controls says CDC chief | Reuters
      http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/13/us-health-ebola-idUSKCN0I21M020141013

      (Reuters) - The case of a Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola while caring for a dying Liberian patient shows that the United States needs to rethink how it handles highly infectious diseases as an outbreak of the deadly virus spreads beyond West Africa, a U.S. health official said on Monday.

      Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said health authorities are still investigating how the nurse became infected while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan in an isolation ward at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

      (...)

      Frieden also apologized for remarks on Sunday, when the nurse’s infection was first disclosed, that suggested she was responsible for a breach in protocols that exposed her to the virus. Some healthcare experts said the comments failed to address deep gaps in training hospital staff to deal with Ebola.

      “I’m sorry if that was the impression given,” Frieden said. He said the agency would take steps to increase the awareness of Ebola at the nation’s hospitals and training for staff.

    • Ebola : la seconde contamination aux Etats-Unis « très inquiétante », d’autres cas possibles
      http://www.sudouest.fr/2014/10/15/ebola-la-seconde-contamination-aux-etats-unis-tres-inquietante-d-autres-cas

      Thomas Frieden avait avancé l’hypothèse d’une faille de protocole pour expliquer le premier cas de contamination. Mais un syndicat d’infirmières a répliqué mardi qu’aucun protocole n’avait été fourni pour traiter les patients touchés à l’hôpital de Dallas.

    • Nurses’ union: Dallas hospital lacked Ebola protocols
      http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nurses-union-dallas-hospital-lacked-ebola-protocols

      A national nurses union is decrying an absence of protocols at the Dallas hospital where a man died of Ebola and a nurse was infected while caring for him.

      Leaders of the National Nurses Union read a statement Tuesday which they said represented concerns from a number of nurses that work at Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas. The union officials declined to identify the Dallas nurses or say how many were participating in the statement.

      But they were vociferous in citing a lack of protocols on the day that Thomas Eric Duncan was admitted with extreme symptoms of Ebola.

      Among the flaws cited by the group included:

      – insufficient garb worn by the emergency personnel

      – the fact that Duncan was left “for hours” in a non-quarantined zone

      – that his lab samples were sent in the same way that normal specimens are sent

      – hospital official allowed nurses involved with Duncan to take care of other patients

      – other ways in which the hospital did not immediately react to the situation.

      “Were protocols breached?” said union spokeswoman Rose Ann DeMoro, “There were no protocols.”

      “These nurses are not well protected. They’re not prepared to handle Ebola or any other pandemic,” said DeMoro. “We are deeply alarmed.”

      DeMoro said the nurses who had come forward were afraid to reveal their identities “because of a culture of threat in the hospitals.”

  • Four close to U.S. #Ebola patient quarantined in Dallas apartment | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/02/us-health-ebola-usa-idUSKCN0HP2F720141002

    Four people close to the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States were quarantined in a Dallas apartment where sheets and other items used by the man were sealed in plastic bags as health officials widened their search for people who had direct or indirect contact with him.

    Health officials said on Thursday that 12 to 18 people had direct contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, who flew to Texas from Liberia via Brussels and Washington two weeks ago, and they in turn had contact with scores of others.

    Up to 100 people have been contacted and a handful were being monitored, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
    (…)
    In Liberia, the head of the country’s airport authority, Binyah Kesselly, said the government could prosecute Duncan for denying he had contact with someone who was eventually diagnosed with Ebola.

    The government said Duncan failed to declare that he helped neighbor Marthalene Williams after she fell critically ill on Sept. 15. Williams died.

    Kesselly said Duncan was asked in a questionnaire whether he had come in contact with any Ebola victim or was showing any symptoms. “To all of these questions, Mr. Duncan answered ’no,’” Kesselly said.
    (…)
    Duncan initially sought treatment at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on the night of Sept. 25 but was sent back to the apartment, with antibiotics, despite telling a nurse he had just been in Liberia. By Sunday [28], he needed an ambulance to return to the same hospital after vomiting on the ground outside the apartment complex.

    He was in serious condition on Thursday [Oct. 2], no change from Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

  • The Magic Number That Could End the Ebola Epidemic - Bloomberg
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-26/ebola-s-magic-number-and-the-cost-of-coming-up-short.html

    perhaps the most important Ebola number right now is 70 percent. That’s the proportion of patients who need to be isolated — in treatment centers or at least in their homes — in order to put a quick end to the Ebola outbreak, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    “Once 70 percent of patients are effectively isolated, the outbreak decreases at a rate nearly equal to the initial rate of increase,” researchers wrote today in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. If 70 percent of the current outbreak was achieved by late December, the epidemic “would be almost ended by January 20.”

    Seventy percent is a number full of hope and dread. Hope, because it’s a goal that feels attainable; a developed country would be able to handle 70 percent isolation on its own soil in short order. Dread, because in Ebola-swept regions like Liberia and Sierra Leone, we are nowhere near achieving it. Right now, only about 18 percent of Ebola patients in Liberia are being isolated.

    #santé #inégalités

  • Imagining the Post-Antibiotics Future
    https://medium.com/editors-picks/892b57499e77

    Health authorities have struggled to convince the public that this is a crisis. In September, Dr. Thomas Frieden, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued a blunt warning: “If we’re not careful, we will soon be in a post-antibiotic era. For some patients and some microbes, we are already there.” The chief medical officer of the United Kingdom, Dame Sally Davies — who calls antibiotic resistance as serious a threat as terrorism — recently published a book in which she imagines what might come next. She sketches a world where infection is so dangerous that anyone with even minor symptoms would be locked in confinement until they recover or die. It is a dark vision, meant to disturb. But it may actually underplay what the loss of antibiotics would mean.

    fr : http://www.ulyces.co/maryn-mckenna/a-quoi-ressemblera-un-monde-sans-antibiotique

    #santé #resistance_aux_antibiotiques #agriculture #élevage

  • Study Links Food Allergies To Pesticides In Tap Water | TIME.com
    http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/03/study-links-food-allergies-to-pesticides-in-tap-water

    Over the past 20 years, the number of people allergic to milk, eggs, wheat nuts and shellfish has soared, jumping by 18% between 1997 and 2007, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But why?

    A team of researchers reporting in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), decided to look at whether that rise in food sensitivities could be related to another growing trend during that time period — the use of environmental pesticides and purifying chemicals.

    #allergie #chimie #eau #santé #environnement #alimentation

    • Ben déjà en france, on donne rarement de l’eau du robinet aux bébés… C’est plus les biberons en plastique alors, pas l’eaudu robinet en contaminant chimique. Et c’est quand même l’âge de début des allergies alimentaires trois mois à six mois de vie. Que ce soit un polluant pro-allergisant (comme le tabac, les fumées de diesel, l’ozone, etc.), oui sûrement. Mais LE grand responsable des allergies alimentaires : non, sûrement pas en Europe et probablement pas aux States.

    • Ce n’est pas ce qu’ils disent non plus. Ils supposent (ils n’affirment rien, ils s’interrogent) qu’un des composants des pesticides utilisé pour purifier l’eau pourrait affaiblir le système immunitaire des personnes (aux État-Unis).

    • En fait, le débat est immunologique pour savoir quelle est la clé qui fait qu’une cellule macrophagique induira une ambiance de défense et de quel type versus une ambiance tolérogène. Et ce produit est un de plus dans la longue liste des suspects pouvant orienter (pas affaiblir) vers une réponse allergique.