equipocesca

This article discusses the Precautionary Principle to strengthen Quaternary Prevention when dealing with additive preventive measures such as breast cancer screening. According to Geoffrey Rose additive preventive measures are generally professional-led interventions that are alien to human ecology, economy, and physiology. These include drugs, vaccines and other biological, physical, and chemical products. Additive preventive measures can produce harm without potential benefit since most individuals are asymptomatic (healthy) and not destined to become sick in the future. Consequently, additive preventive measures cannot be considered safe and policymakers are accountable for providing evidence of their net benefit.

• Applying the precautionary principle to breast cancer screening: implications to public health. Tesser CD, Norman AH, Gérvas J. Cad Saude Publica. 2019 Jul 22;35(7):e00048319. doi: 10.1590/0102-311X00048319. Download article here.

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Coronaviruses have been with us for thousands of years, and we are prepared to overcome their infections.  If you have traveled to Wuhan (China) or have had close contact with those who have traveled there and have severe catarrhal symptoms with respiratory distress, consult your doctor especially if you have any underlying disease.  In all other cases avoid a panic epidemic, be prudent.

• First published in https://www.actasanitaria.com/coronavirus-from-wuhan-china-2019-ncov-what-you-need-to-know-to-avoid-a-panic-epidemic/

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We must admit that: a / “if the final objective of EBM (Evidence Based Medicine) is to improve patients-populations’ health, do we have evidence of succeed in this objective?” No, b / is EBM harming patients-populations’ health? We do not know. Evidence-Based Medicine (#EBM) has not demonstrated any impact on patients’ health. It is honest to think that the EBM has become harmful and it is urgent to abandon it and replace it with a Medicine Based on Living.  See also: https://www.actasanitaria.com/what-has-evidence-based-medicine-ebm-done-for-our-patients/

• What has evidence based medicine (EBM) done for our patients? We do not know. We must abandon it. Gérvas J. Madrid. September 2019. Download article here.

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Sertindole (Serdolect in the world, Zerdol in Germany) is an atypical antipsychotic agent, schizophrenia. Sertindole side effects include cardiac problems as prolongation of QT interval, arrhythmia and sudden deaths (higher than for other atypical antipsychotics). The FDA analysis of SCoP, made public in April 2009, estimated the hazard ratio for sudden cardiac death with sertindole versus risperidone as 5.102 (95% CI 1.453 – 17.913). In April 2009 an FDA advisory panel voted 13-0 that sertindole was effective in the treatment of schizophrenia but 12-1 that it had not been shown to be acceptably safe.
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/Drugs/PsychopharmacologicDrugsAdvisoryCommittee/UCM198218.pdf

Sertindole was never approved for use in the USA and was discontinued in the U.K., Australia and the New Zealand. Sertindole was approved in the European Union (and others counytries) in 2002 (
http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/Referrals_document/Sertindole_36/WC500011855.pdf )

This manuscript is being released primarily for two reasons. First, the importance of accessing freely available FDA documents to obtain a more complete characterization of a drug’s safety and efficacy. Second, to alert patients and prescribers in other countries about the potential risks of sertindole. 

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