BOTOX anyone...

[CrzyC1414779017]

2 illnesses spur probe into Botox injections

By Kelly Wolfe

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, November 29, 2004

Federal and state health officials are investigating two cases of botulism being treated at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center to determine whether the patients contracted the illness after receiving Botox injections, authorities said Sunday night.

It appears that both patients received Botox injections at the same clinic in Broward County, said Tim O'Connor, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County Health Department.

Federal authorities also are investigating those cases, plus two more cases of botulism outside Florida, said Lindsay Hodges, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Hodges said all cases of botulism must be reported to the CDC. The agency is trying to determine whether these four are "related to Botox," she said.

"We'll have a lot more information tomorrow," Hodges said.

The patients in Palm Beach Gardens are a man and a woman, O'Connor said. He didn't know whether they were a couple.

Authorities didn't name the clinic or say when the patients received the Botox injections.

A Gardens Medical spokeswoman, citing federal privacy laws, declined to say whether the hospital is treating two botulism cases. The patients' names were unavailable.

The widely used drug Botox, which contains botulinum toxin, has become an accepted way for people to treat wrinkles. The drug, which is injected into the face, paralyzes muscles and prevents smile lines. Use of the drug has become so casual that people get injected at spas, clinics and even parties.

But some patients have had serious, and even fatal, reactions.

According to documents filed with the FDA, the agency has received dozens of reports of severe side effects, including some deaths and prolonged hospitalizations, possibly associated with Botox use from 1989 to 2001, The Los Angeles Times reported last year.

The FDA said it had not studied the events sufficiently to determine whether Botox was the cause or a contributing factor in those incidents The Times reported. FDA officials have said an analysis of those and other reports turned up nothing alarming.

Other physicians, though, caution that the drug's side effects deserve more study.

Botox "works by causing damage to the nervous system," British biochemist Nicholas Abrishamian said in an article in the Lancet, a British medical journal, in September 2002. "How do I know that it's not going to slowly cause even more nervous system damage?"

Last year in Gainesville, a 43-year-old woman died after having an allergic reaction to Botox, according to autopsy results. The woman went into cardiac arrest and could not be revived.

But officials at Allergan Inc., the company that makes Botox, stress Botox's safety record, dating to the late 1970s, when clinical trials of the drug began. Just seven people in the 1990s had serious side effects, according to Allergan.

Allergan said last year that the only known Botox-related death was that of an elderly woman with a pre-existing neurological condition who suffered from head and neck spasms and had difficulty swallowing. After Botox treatment, her symptoms were exacerbated.

Two months ago, Allergan defeated a lawsuit in which Hollywood socialite Irena Medavoy, the wife of movie producer Mike Medavoy, unsuccessfully claimed that her Botox treatments caused a raft of maladies that left her bedridden.

Irena Medavoy, 45, said she experienced the symptoms after her Beverly Hills dermatologist gave her a series of injections of the drug in 2001 and 2002 without warning her that Botox may cause "life-altering headaches."

But in October, after a trial that included testimony from Wheel of Fortune spinner Vanna White, a Los Angeles County jury voted 9-3 against Medavoy's suit.

Medavoy had asked for $192,000 for medical bills and lost wages from a proposed talk show.

In June 2003, NBC Dateline aired a segment on the suit, featuring interviews with doctors and former Botox patients who claimed the drug caused monthslong illness, permanent fatigue and facial paralysis.

By the next morning, Allergan had bought full-page ads that carried the headline "The Truth About Botox" in newspapers across the nation, and company sales reps were scurrying to physicians' offices with a "talking points" letter aimed at easing doctors' anxiety about the product.

Allergan also dispatched physicians to shopping malls in 24 U.S. cities to assuage the fears of potential patients.

The trial included weeks of medical testimony from about 20 doctors, three of whom blamed Botox for Medavoy's symptoms, including all-over body pain, respiratory problems and fatigue. Several others diagnosed Medavoy with fibromyalgia, a painful musculoskeletal condition with no known cause.

Botulinum toxin was identified in the 1820s as the bacterium found in contaminated food that causes botulism poisoning, which can be fatal.

During World War II, U.S. scientists studied the neurotoxin's effectiveness as a weapon. During the 1980s and early 1990s, it was a key part of Iraq's arsenal of biological weapons.

[ryan2772]

what a surprise.

[Guest LeVeL]

let me tell you these women now in days everything is fake on them. Nothing real now in days..so sad :'(

[Guest web_norah]

and the men keep admiring the plastic fake breasts and all the additional work.....

what was that Bravo show called?

Miami Plastic or whatever.

[CrzyC1414779017]

Miami Slice

[Guest cutchemist]

and the men keep admiring the plastic fake breasts and all the additional work.....

what was that Bravo show called?

Miami Plastic or whatever.

exactly....guys ask me if (or when) i'd consider getting implants....i'm a c-/b+....but they don't compare to what's on TV

[Guest LeVeL]

Implants suck.......they look good now but in the upcmoning years those tits will sag once again. I say to the laides if you have nice tits leave them alone...why fuck it up with implants.

Even if you get implants and they make your life a better one..Your going to have to consider getting implants again and again in your life. What a horrible phase...whats next they are going to put implants on girl pussies. Thats the only part still to be untouch and just think about how many girls want to get that one. :

[Guest durrtylexx]

I'm all for vanity!!

Fake breasts, lips, liposuction, tummy tucks, botox, whatever..

If a person wants to enhance something on there body, I see nothing wrong with it..

[Guest web_norah]

dude just as long as you dont end up like Jacko, too much plastic surgery gone wrong.

[Guest durrtylexx]

dude just as long as you dont end up like Jacko, too much plastic surgery gone wrong.

not me, I'm good..No need for surgery..I'm ok with myself.I've met females that had plastic surgery and look great.Their self confidence went up..But your right Norah, there are some people that are all wacked on plastic surgery,they want to look like Barbie or a model.Those people need Jesus.. j/k... They need help..

[Guest Cosmigonon]

I'm all for vanity!!

Fake breasts, lips, liposuction, tummy tucks, botox, whatever..

If a person wants to enhance something on there body, I see nothing wrong with it..

I agree.

[Guest cutchemist]

location, location, location, ah yea ur in sobe

mabye its catholic school...

but all i can imagine is these toxic things killin me...

...and a slow agonizing death with god lookin down on me shakin' his head...

i'm not into self distruction...

[BobbyTrendy]

I see nothing wrong with plastic surgery and plan to have a little nip/tucking action in my future ;D

[Guest JMT]

you gotta love yourself...

[Guest Diabolique]

I'm all for vanity!!

Fake breasts, lips, liposuction, tummy tucks, botox, whatever..

If a person wants to enhance something on there body, I see nothing wrong with it..

Oh, yes, as long as people don't constantly compare you to a man, horse, or an alien..LMAO

funny tho that all this is coming out now--botox has been popular for years...