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FDA Warning on Asthma Drug
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In late July, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a health advisory on zafirlukast after learning that six asthma patients had developed Churg-Strauss syndrome (allergic granulomatous angiitis) while taking the drug.
The FDA is not recommending that patients stop taking the asthma drug. "The data do not definitively demonstrate that the drug caused the condition" and "the agency continues to believe the benefits of this drug outweigh any of its known or potential risks," according to the FDA announcement.
All reported cases occurred in patients whose steroidal asthma medications were gradually being lowered or discontinued during zafirlukast therapy. Health care providers are encouraged to monitor patients carefully when corticosteroid treatment is being tapered or discontinued.
Approved for marketing in September 1996, zafirlukast, manufactured by Zeneca Pharmaceuticals of Wilmington, Delaware, blocks the action of leukotrienes, which are involved in the inflammatory process in some patients with asthma (Ann Intern Med. 1997; 126:I-46-7).
National Adult Immunization Awareness Week, 12-18 October, marked the start of the influenza vaccination season. In accord with the objective of Healthy People 2000, a main goal of the campaign is to immunize at least 80% of U.S. adults age 65 and older and chronically ill, institutionalized persons plus 60% of noninstitutionalized high-risk populations against influenza and pneumococcal pneumonia. Halting the spread of hepatitis A and B, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, tetanus, and diphtheria among adults is also critical.
Influenza vaccination rates have increased for adults 65 and older (Ann Intern Med. 1996; 125:I-38), but minority populations are immunized only one third to one half as often as white persons, according to Greg Poland, MD, chief of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccination Research Group in Rochester, Minnesota. He also noted that people younger than age 65 who are at increased risk for influenza, such as diabetics and patients with respiratory illnesses, are not getting immunized as recommended.
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