Death unrelated to abortion pill
Health officials said Monday they have ruled out the abortion pill RU-486 in one of two recent deaths of women who had taken the drug. The second remains under investigation.
The one death was unrelated to either abortion or use of the pill, the Food and Drug Administration said. The second woman showed symptoms of infection. One of the women died weeks after her abortion, although it was not immediately clear which of the two.
Four other women have died of a rare but deadly infection after undergoing pill-triggered abortions.
In those four deaths, all involving Californians, the women tested positive for Clostridium sordellii, a common but rarely fatal bacterium.
The FDA has warned doctors to watch for infection by the bacterium. However, the drug, also called Mifeprex or mifepristone, has not been proved to be the cause in any of those cases, the FDA has said.
Infections linked to lens solution
Bausch & Lomb voluntarily suspended shipment of a contact lens solution after federal health officials linked it Monday to a fungal eye infection that can cause temporary blindness.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating 109 reports of Fusarium keratitis infection in patients in 17 states since June 2005.
Federal and state health officials have interviewed just 30 of those patients. However, of the 28 who wore soft contact lens, 26 reported using Bausch & Lomb’s ReNu brand contact lens solution or a generic type of solution also made by the Rochester, N.Y., company.
Five of the 26 patients also reported using other types of solutions in addition to ReNu, Bausch & Lomb said. And nine said they wore their lenses overnight, which is known to increase the risk of infection, the CDC said.
Abu Ghraib photos authenticated
Nearly two years after graphic photographs of detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were published worldwide, the U.S. government Monday for the first time authenticated 74 of the images as being part of the original compact disc that was turned over to Army investigators in January 2004.
Responding to a federal court order as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in New York, Justice Department lawyers wrote in court papers that the previously published images “are identical” to those that investigators have used to look into abuse at the prison. Included among the images are such photos as Pvt. Lynndie England holding a leash attached to a naked detainee’s neck.
The government, however, did not authenticate numerous photographs of soldiers using dogs to intimidate detainees, though military prosecutors have used such images in open court while pursuing cases against the soldiers.
SAN FRANCISCO
State of emergency follows March rains
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Monday in seven northern and central California counties, saying the region’s rainiest March on record and more rain on the horizon put people and property in “extreme peril.”
Many reservoirs in California’s Central Valley are at full capacity, and at least 10 more days of rain are forecast for the region.
Levee repairs are typically done in the summer, when water behind them is at its low point, but state water officials fear the heavy rain could weaken some levees to the point of failure. They took advantage of a weekend lull in the storms to patch some weak spots but were still concerned.
Schwarzenegger’s new declaration Monday didn’t specify an amount of aid but directed “all agencies of the state” to dispatch staff, equipment and facilities.
Compiled from wire reports