Online Pharmacy Medicine Blog

The arrival of the H1N1 pandemic has everyone on edge and eagerly awaiting the new vaccination to fight against the new deadly strain of influenza. However many are debating if the new vaccination has been rushed to market to fast, and if safety has been overlooked in order to meet the demand of the public.

The new vaccine will be administered in two shots in addition to the regular flu shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending pregnant women, people between 6 months and 24 years old and non-elderly individuals who have underlying conditions be vaccinated as soon as the shot becomes available in mid-October. Also, the CDC recommends people living in households with infants under 6 months of age should be immunized, because the infant is too young to be vaccinated.

But with the vaccination comes concerns, and rightfully so. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a preliminary report published earlier this month by the New England Journal of Medicine,  45 percent of the 240 people vaccinated experienced mild-to-moderate side effects.

Also many parents are concerned that the vaccine contains thiomersal, a mercury-containing agent that preserves vaccines, but has been alleged to have a link to autism in children.

Only time will  tell whether the vaccine is truly affective and safe. Whether or not you choose the vaccine for yourself or your family, don’t forget the practical things you can do in your everyday routines recommended by the Center for Disease Control to help prevent catching and spreading H1N1 like:

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.*
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.
• Stay home if you get sick. CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

Hopefully the H1N1 scare is more hype than fact, but remember, it is always better to error on the side of caution.

I went to my doctor with an infection recently, and he prescribed the antibiotic Levaquin. He didn’t say the drug was different from other antibiotics or spell out any specific risks associated with the drug.

Then I saw an ad on TV from a law firm warning that taking Levaquin could be harmful — even deadly.

As much as we might tend to group antibiotics as a single category of medication, they are anything but. Some antibiotics are more powerful than others. For example, fluoroquinolone antibiotics — such as Levaquin, Cipro, Avelox and Floxin — are among the most potent on the market.

With this potency comes risks and side effects. Specifically, fluoroquinolone antibiotics carry a black-box warning from the FDA stating that they increase the patient’s chance of developing tendonitis or having a sudden tendon rupture, among other dangers.

One legal site tells the story of Melissa, who was prescribed Levaquin in 2007. She says that a few months after taking a course of Levaquin,

I started having trouble with my feet. I couldn’t walk and I didn’t know what was going on. I went to a foot doctor and I was diagnosed with contracted tendons. I was in terrible pain …

The problems with my feet were sudden. One morning I got up and I said, ‘I don’t think I can stand up.’ I would try to stand but it was like everything in my feet was ripping. The left foot went first, followed by the right in a few weeks … I use a cane half the time and I’m only 46. In the house, the pain can be really bad, so I’ll use a walker.

In March of this year I had surgery on my left foot. I was scheduled for surgery on my right foot, but I did not like results from the left foot. On a pain scale of one to 10, I was at a 10 before the surgery. I’m at a nine now, and I’m out $10,000 and I have a scar on my foot and leg.

I also found a consumer site that called Levaquin an antibiotic to “avoid like the plague.” It says:

Most likely a great deal of the toxicity of these drugs is that they contain the highly toxic poison, fluoride.

Drugs with an attached fluoride can penetrate into very sensitive tissues that used to be impenetrable. The fluoroquinolones have the unique ability to penetrate your central nervous system, including your brain.

According to Bob Patton, a private citizen in England fighting to get the truth out about these antibiotics, about half of the fluoroquinolone antibiotics that were once on the market have been removed from clinical practice due to their horrific side effects.

Omniflox, Raxar, Trovan, Zagam, and Tequin have all been banned.

However, Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox, and Floxin continue to be prescribed for a variety of infections, both major and minor. Cipro and Levaquin are by far the favorites.

Although they are admittedly powerful anti-infectives, they are too often prescribed as a first-line defense for minor problems such as sinus, bladder, and prostate infections. These super-antibiotics should be used as a last line of defense, not handed out like candy for every patient with a sore throat, which has unfortunately become the norm.

And with devastating results.

I did a little more research on Levaquin and saw that, indeed, the drug is limited in its licensed uses to “serious and life-threatening” infections. However, doctors have the discretion to prescribe the drug more liberally — for even minor infections — and many of them do.

So don’t assume that all antibiotics are alike. Do your research, and if you don’t like what you find, ask your doctor for a milder substitute.