Developments Relating to Drug Safety
Two items received late in May give evidence of increasing alertness and concern over the safe use of drugs.
Envelopes arrestingly labelled DRUG WARNING, mailed by the Food and Drug Administration of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, enclosed warnings to physicians of contraindications to the ophthalmic use of topical corticosteroid preparations. Beside the contraindications (herpes simplex, vaccinia, varicella, and most other viral diseases of the cornea and conjunctiva; tuberculosis and fungal diseases of the eye; untreated purulent infections of the eye which might be masked or enhanced by steroids), the physician was cautioned as to the possibility of increased intraocular pressures and, in diseases causing thinning of the cornea, the known occurrence of perforation in steroid treatment.
