Meningitis: Vaccine causes severe neurological disorder - Medicine is all about risks and benefits, and this comes into stark focus with the news that the vaccine designed to protect teenagers against meningi...

New drugs - New profits for old product - Most new drugs are simply old drugs with a bit of window dressing to justify double the price tag. Yet, the dangers multiply from these novel twists a...

Catheters are 'life threatening' - Pulmonary artery catheters used extensively in hospitals to check heart and organ condition could be a danger to the patient, possibly even threatenin...

'echo' heart test: life threatening - Echocardiography a diagnostic test on the heart using soundwaves is more dangerous than had been thought, and could lead to life threatening complicat...

New US system investigating reactions to vaccines - The US Department of Health and Human Services has set of a Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a single central body to accept all report...

Adverse Reactions: 700,000 people need emergency hospital care every year - Statistic of the week: Every year 700,000 people in the USA need emergency out-patient hospital care following an adverse reaction to a prescription...

Say no to new drugs - When your doctor reaches for his prescription pad, possibly the most important question you can ask is the age of the drug he’s about to prescribe you...

Booster vaccine: one jab too many? - The US drugs regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has approved a new booster shot of the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) vaccine...