What Doctors Don't Tell YouWe all know we live in worlds within worlds, and we can usually rely on medicine to exemplify the point. On July 11 the World Health Organization finally included two drugs – mifepristone and misoprostol, which both induce miscarriage – as ones that should be made available in developing countries. Just one week later the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American drug regulator, issued a special alert about the drugs after they had been linked to serious bacterial infection.
The FDA acted after four women had died from sepsis while taking the drug combination, and it has twice ordered a stiffer health warning on the labels that accompany the drugs.
A group of anti-abortion senators are trying to get the drugs banned, although any protests have little to do with the safety of the drugs.
Unwanted births are a major concern in developing countries, but there must be a better way of dealing with the problem than foisting on the mothers drugs that can kill them.
Maryon Stewart
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD