Drug Alert For Anaphylactic Shock

Here is an update from the United States Food and Drug Administration about a drug for immunization shots:

Affymax, Inc. (Nasdaq: AFFY) and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda) today have decided to voluntarily recall all lots of OMONTYS® (peginesatide) Injection to the user level as a result of new postmarketing reports regarding serious hypersensitivity reactions, including anaphylaxis, which can be life-threatening or fatal. The companies have been working actively with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which has indicated its agreement with this decision.

Anaphylaxis, the word in bold and darker red, means that it can make you stop breathing. This is a pretty serious recall. You need to know about it and pay attention, since it could kill you.

The following quote is from Wikipedia:
It is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of anemia associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in adult patients on dialysis.[3][4] On February 23, 2013, Affymax and Takeda issued a press release indicating that they were recalling all batches of peginesatide from the market.

I do not know for certain, but am guessing that the above medication is used mostly for people who are getting dialysis. I have known quite a few people who were receiving dialysis for extended periods, sometimes for the rest of their lives. Their health is usually fragile and they certainly don't need a medication causing their health to become worse.

I subscribed some time ago to alerts by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Most of them are not very urgent recalls for food items. They are more important for people who store food for emergency preparedness than the general unprepared average person.

Most of the time I do not pass along the alerts from the Food and Drug Administration because they are not usually that important to very many people and there can be a huge number of them daily. 

I made an exception to this habit of not posting many alerts for this one about OMONTYS® (peginesatide) because of the life threatening effects to the people who are likely to receive it.

If you are interested in storing some extra food for emergency preparedness, you might do well to subscribe yourself to the FDA's alerts. There can easily be a hundred or more alerts about food recalls, mostly voluntary by the manufacturers, a month. 

It is a tedious chore checking all of them when shopping, but it is better than finding out the hard way when you really need that food. One shortcut that helps reduce your work, is to use as much organic and natural foods as possible. 

There are occasional alerts for recalls even among organic and natural foods, but they are much less frequent and usually come because of a common basic ingredient like the peanuts that prompted me to sign up for the alerts. You will not encounter even the peanuts if you eat less prepared foods, most of the time.