Public Health

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, said Tuesday the agency sent letters to manufacturers of the diarrhea medication loperamide — known by the brand name Imodium — requesting the over-the-counter medication be repackaged to reduce the risk of overdose.

From 2006 to 2016, drug distributors shipped 20,827,260 hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to two pharmacies in Williamson, W. Va., according to an investigation conducted by U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.

A New Jersey Superior Court Judge last week sentenced two men for possessing nearly 100 pounds of fentanyl, amounting to more than 18 million lethal doses of the extremely potent synthetic opioid.

Illinois maintained the highest percentage of individuals sick with influenza last week, followed by Missouri and Wisconsin, respectively, according to recent data released by Kinsa Insights.

A Mississippi waiver request to impose work requirements on Medicaid enrollees recently opened for federal comment, according to The Hill.

United States residents purchased nearly $800 million worth of fentanyl pills from China over the internet in two years, according to a Senate investigations report released Wednesday.

The Baylor Scott & White Emergency Center in Forney (Texas) was evacuated Tuesday morning following reports of a suspicious odor, reports The Patch.

Surgical and emergency services at Chicago-based Jesse Brown VA Medical Center have been unavailable or disrupted since chemical fumes engulfed operating rooms and floods damaged the emergency department nearly one month ago, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Emergency rooms at hospitals in Syracuse, N.Y., have collectively been on diversion for more than 117 hours between Jan. 1 and Jan. 21, a nearly 9-fold increase from the same period in 2016, reports Syracuse.com

A study, published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, examined opioid use among older adults in nursing homes.