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Public Health Education Often Involves Drug Scares |
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by Alex Russel
alex.russel@careertrainingguide.net
Career Training Guide Columnist
Sometimes it feels like another week, another drug scare. It appears that new research challenges the Food and Drug Administration's decision not to pull the cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor from the market. New data shows it causes more kidney and muscle problems than rival medications.
Last March, the FDA assured consumers and public health officials that Crestor's risks were no greater than its competitors, and it rejected consumer efforts to remove the drug, made by AstraZeneca PLC, from store shelves.
New Public Health Scare
The new study, based on side effects reported to the FDA, said kidney problems and muscle weakness were two to eight times more frequent among Crestor users than those taking other cholesterol-lowering medications like Lipitor, Zocor and Pravachol.
Public Health OverEducation?
Even so, results from the study published by the American Heart Association's journal Circulation said the cholesterol drugs - called statins and taken by millions of Americans - showed that most are very safe, and that the risk of serious problems, even with Crestor, are very low.
An estimated 20 million Americans are believed to be taking statins, which researchers say are still the best drugs for lowering high cholesterol and reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Public Health Jobs in Public Eye
AstraZeneca said the higher reports of side effects may have been the result of heightened awareness of the problems with another cholesterol drug, Baycol, which was pulled from the market in 2001. Crestor went on the market two years later.
"We strongly disagree with the conclusions of this study," the company said in a statement.
Too Much Public Health Exposure
In fact, many public health officials believe that media buzz sometimes trumps real health education when it comes to reporting on supposedly dangerous drugs.
"Statins in general are very safe drugs and they can be life-saving to high-risk patients," said Dr. Scott Grundy, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
While complications were more common with Crestor than with other statins, the product still had less than half the rate of those reported during the first year of Baycol's use. In fact, the absolute risk of a serious problem with Crestor was a very low 1 in 35,862.
About the Author
Alex Russel is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn, NY. Since graduating from Syracuse University he has worked at many different media companies in fields as diverse as film, TV, advertising, and journalism. He holds a dual bachelor's degree in English and History.
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