New Study Shows Zithromax Heart Attack Risk

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A new Zithromax study shows both the benefits and risks related to the popular antibiotic.

Zithromax is a best-selling antibiotic. The popularity stems from several features of the drug. First, it is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that inhibits a wide variety of gram-negative bacteria. This means that Zithromax can help treat a huge variety of infections, including everything from strep throat to flesh eating bacteria. Additionally, Zithromax is very structurally different from penicillin and related antibiotics. This allows patients who are allergic to penicillin to take the drug.

The latest study indicated that elderly pneumonia patients taking Zithromax experienced two distinct Zithromax side effects from the drug. First, their overall risk of death decreased. However, their risk of having a heart attack increased significantly.

The research was published in the June issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). In this study, researchers used data collected by the Veterans Affairs Administration between 2002 and 2012. The VA, like other medical organizations, collects vast amounts of patient data, which researchers can later use for retrospective studies like this one.

In this Zithromax study, records from more than 65,000 older patients were analyzed by researchers. Roughly half of the people in the study did not take Zithromax, and served as the “control group,” a group of patients who had other treatments. By comparing the two groups, scientists were able to discover the differences in their outcome.

This is not the first study to link Zithromax to an increased risk of heart problems. In fact, in March 2013, the FDA issued a Drug Safety Communication over concerns about heart problems. The announcement came as a result of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The NEJM study found that Zithromax could change the electrical patterns in the heart, creating abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias), which could make a person more likely to suffer from sudden heart failure.

Based on the NEJM study, the FDA put out the Drug Safety Communication and updated the labeling for Zithromax. The March 2013 communication was a follow-up to an earlier, preliminary statement from May of 2012, right after the NEJM study was published.

The risk of heart attack could potentially lead to Zithromax lawsuit. Drug lawsuits typically take the form of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) or mass tort, a type of group legal action with some similarities to class action lawsuits. In both MDLs and class action lawsuits, a group of plaintiffs allege that they have suffered similar harm at the hands of the same defendant.

The main difference is that class action lawsuits start out as group lawsuits, while MDLs start out as individual suits that are later combined into a singe coordinated MDL. This is why most drug lawsuits take the form of an MDL rather than a class action lawsuit, since the plaintiffs in drug lawsuits typically have injuries that vary, making a group lawsuit unrealistic.

Join a Free Zithromax Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you believe that you or a loved one has been the victim of a Zithromax/Z-Pak injury such as a heart attack, liver damage, or Stevens Johnson Syndrome, you have legal options. See if you qualify to join a free Zithromax class action lawsuit investigation and pursue compensation for you or your loved one’s injuries:

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