I hope you and your children all had a healthy Thanksgiving weekend. AG came through without a flare as I hoped, although she was coughing this morning on the way to school. I think her problems may have something to do with the torrential downpour and accompanying pressure change that started around midnight and hasn’t let up yet.
Today, some good and semi-bad news about asthma and allergy medications, and by *news* I mean *stories that broke in the last week or so that I neglected for holiday posting.*
First up, the good:
No prescriptions for Zyrtec in 2008!
Here’s an early Christmas present for you. The FDA approved Zyrtec for over-the-counter sales starting in January. We’ll be able to find tablets, chewable tablets, and syrup for this formerly prescription-only allergy medication on the drugstore shelves.
AG doesn’t use Zyrtec, but her sister with bad seasonal allergies–and possibly asthma–does. So I’m pretty excited, especially since asthma requires so much emergency care between the actual ER visits, the last minute prescriptions, the doctor appointments, the inhalers I forget to refill before going out of town…….
It will be very, very nice to eliminate at least one pharmacy phone call in my life. Know what’s even nicer? Looks like the OTC Zyrtec will be cheaper, too.
Now for the sort-of bad, since the following isn’t news so much as it is a further expansion of precautionary measures for pediatric medication:
FDA Calls for Safety Review for Long-Acting Beta-Agonists in Children
The FDA is calling for a risk-benefit analysis of Serevent, Advair, and Foradil after a routine safety review of these medications revealed that a small number of patients experienced adverse effects, including death, after using Serevent and Advair.
If you follow asthma medical news at all or if you or your child uses these medications, you already know they carry an FDA black box warning. Basically, (as I understand the story) the FDA wants the review to double-check current pediatric warnings and recommendations.
No word on why these long-acting beta-agonists are lifesavers for some patients and cause severe, life-threatening flares in others.
**Edited for clarity Wednesday, November 28, 2007
