US group wants Botox warning after 16 death reports

[Celebration]

http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN2427565220080124

WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Botox and a similar injection should come with stronger warnings following reports of 16 deaths after the botulinum toxin spread inside the body, a U.S. consumer group said on Thursday.

Public Citizen asked U.S. authorities to require the strongest possible warning, highlighted in a "black box," on Allergan Inc's (AGN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Botox and Solstice Neuroscience Inc's Myobloc.

Botox is famous for smoothing facial wrinkles but also has approved medical uses such as treating cervical dystonia, or rigid neck muscles. Myobloc is cleared only for the neck condition.

Both injections are made with forms of the botulinum toxin, which blocks nerve impulses to muscles and makes them relax.

Public Citizen said it reviewed 180 reports submitted to the Food and Drug Administration by manufacturers involving patients injected with Botox or Myobloc. The reports detailed cases of muscle weakness, difficulty swallowing or aspiration pneumonia, a serious condition caused by breathing a foreign material into the lungs.

[DemBones DemBones]

1. Too bad the article didn't specify whether

the deaths were from cosmetic usage of Botox or from medical usage. A friend who has cerebral palsy has gotten Botox injections in his hip to relieve pain and I would imagine they inject much more Botox in such cases than in treating facial wrinkles.

If people are dying or having serious complications from facial injections, somebody needs to determine why. It may be that some people should never have Botox injections due to some individual health issue.

The article also didn't mention Botox injections being given by people with no training in medicine or nursing, which would seem to be a danger.

[David__77]

2. They do inject much more for medically necessary uses.

I would be very surprised if any of these cases were from Botox use. The amounts used are miniscule.

[TheMadMonk]

4. I'd suspect that the "bad things" come about as a result of...

...accidental injection into the bloodstream causing the toxin to travel to places it was not meant to go.

[Berry Cool]

3. Botox was an idiotic idea from the start.

Hmm, let's inject people with a "purified" form of a toxin so lethal that a mere glassful could kill off the world's population...nah, nothing could possibly go wrong with that...