FDA urges doctors to check on patients

FDA urges doctors to check on patients

new york

Two more drugs from a specialty pharmacy linked to a meningitis outbreak are being investigated, U.S. health officials said, as they urged doctors to contact patients who got any kind of injection from the company.

The New England Compounding Center of Framingham, Mass., has been under scrutiny since last month, when a rare fungal form of meningitis was linked to its steroid shots used mostly for back pain.

Monday’s step by the Food and Drug Administration followed reports of infections in three people who got different drugs made by the company. As of Monday, the current outbreak had sickened 214 people, including 15 who have died, in 15 states.

Police release names in prostitution case

kennebunk, maine

Police on Monday released the first round of names of more than 100 men accused of paying for sex with a Zumba instructor who’s charged with turning her dance studio into a brothel in this seaside community.

The release of 21 names followed 11th-hour legal wrangling, and some residents watched the news flash on their local evening TV news.

Residents had been anxiously awaiting the release of names since 29-year-old Alexis Wright was charged this month with engaging in prostitution.

Shot by Taliban, girl is in UK for care

birmingham, england

A teenage Pakistani activist shot in the head by the Taliban arrived in Britain on Monday to receive specialized medical care and protection from follow-up attacks threatened by the militants. Officials said she is stable and has a chance at “a good recovery.”

The attack on 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai as she was returning home from school in Pakistan’s northwest a week ago has horrified people across the South Asian country and abroad. It has also sparked hope that the Pakistani government would respond by intensifying its fight against the Taliban and their allies.

Paul, Rafael upgrade

los cabos, mexico

Hurricane Paul rapidly strengthened into a major Category 3 storm in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico on Monday, prompting a hurricane warning for a swath of Baja California’s western coast.

Forecasters said Paul was expected to approach the western coast of the southern Baja peninsula by late today and be near or over the central Baja peninsula Wednesday.

In the Atlantic, meanwhile, Rafael reached hurricane strength late Monday in the Atlantic Ocean south of Bermuda.

Astronomers find planet with 4 suns

los angeles

Amateur astronomers in a crowd-sourced science project have discovered a far-off planet that receives light from four stars.

The Neptune-sized gas giant, named PH1, is the first confirmed exoplanet to be discovered by Planethunters.org, a collaboration of amateurs working with astronomers from Yale University.

The planet orbits one pair of stars, which are orbited by another pair of stars, at a distance nearly 1,000 times that between the Earth and the sun. The stars PH1 orbits are 1.5 and 0.41 times the mass of our sun, and the planet circles them about every 138 days.

PH1 is the first planet to be found in a system of four stars. Only six planets are known to orbit two stars, according to the Yale researchers.

Combined dispatches