Ketek K.O.
I find it difficult not to get up on my soapbox when the FDA conveniently places it under my feet. Especially when it comes to people's health and what is considered acceptable risk for something they didn't need in the first place. I can't - and won't - stop beating the drum on Ketek.
As I've told you before, Ketek has been linked with severe liver problems and several deaths. A FDA review found there were 13 reports of liver failure in patients who were "treated" with Ketek.
What riles me up is that the FDA is wringing its' hands, asking whether or not the benefits outweigh the risks. I think it would be more appropriate for the FDA to ask how soon to get this drug off the market. Instead, they are stringing it along, waiting to hear from "outside experts" as to whether or not this drug should stay on the market. Incredibly, if this panel does recommend Ketek's continuation on the market, the FDA would like to know if a sterner warning should be added to the already recently altered label, or if more studies are needed. Meanwhile, more people are at risk of injury or death for taking an antibiotic that has no proven advantage over older, safer and effective drugs.
The FDA should yank Ketek off the market, and then they can feel free to study it all they want, safe from hurting another patient. But to allow it to be prescribed another day, endangering the health of patients' livers, and worse - their lives, is unconscionable. Not to mention, other side effects that I've told you about before are eye and heart problems.
Ketek, an antibiotic, is prescribed for sinusitis, bronchitis, and pneumonia patients. The current stance by the FDA and Ketek's manufacturer is to place the burden on your doctor to keep a close eye on you to watch for any problems or symptoms of liver injury. Just how your doctor is supposed to keep a watch on you - unless they do a house call - is beyond me. By then, the damage is done. Liver damage is not only serious, it's often irreversible once it's discovered. And in the case of death, the only thing left to do is have the medical examiner sign your death certificate and order the flower arrangement for your casket, a drastic way to get rid of the sniffles. Permanently.
It makes little sense to pressure your doctor for an antibiotic to treat a viral condition, when antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections. It makes less sense, for a doctor who knows better, to buckle and prescribe an antibiotic as the easy way out. And when it comes to those strains that are bacterial infections, you would be better served to treat bronchitis, sinusitis, and pneumonia through other means.
For pneumonia that doesn't require hospitalization, there's good old penicillin, amoxicillin, and clarithromycin and levofoxacin in the oral forms. If you're sick enough to be hospitalized, your doctor can look to intravenous antibiotics, such as rocephin, azithromycin, and levofloxacin, depending on your particular circumstance.
Better to stick with tried-and-true than to run with the new-fangled - and, in the case of Ketek - deadly.
