Certain medications used to treat diabetes may increase patients' risk of contracting a rare, potentially fatal, carnivorous genital infection. The Food and Drug Administration warned Wednesday.(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Certain medications used for the treatment of diabetes have been linked to cases of rare, possibly fatal, carnivorous genital infection, the US Food and Drug Administration has announced. this week.
The drugs involved: sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, which are used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. A release on Wednesday from the FDA lists more than a dozen drugs that will have to warn about the infection. Under the brand names mentioned: Invokana, Farxiga and Jardiance.
The infection that gave rise to the warning is "necrotizing fasciitis of the perineum", also called "gangrene of Fournier & # 39; called. The rare infection affects the genital region and has a mortality rate of more than 20 percent, according to a 2012 study published by ISRN Surgery and US National Library of Medicine.
Necrotizing fasciitis is a rare bacterial infection commonly known as "carnivorous bacteria", according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The warning comes after the FDA diagnosed 12 cases of the disease in patients who were taking an SGLT2 inhibitor in the course of 5 years between March 2013 and May 2018. This has been compared to only six recorded cases in more than 30 years in patients those other antidiabetics used classes, the FDA says.
Of the 12 cases examined, all patients required surgery, with some operations marred in nature. One patient died, the FDA reported.
The FDA's warning urges patients to seek medical treatment if they experience "tenderness, redness or swelling of the genitals or the area of the genitals back to the rectum and fever over 100.4 F or general feeling of being unwell. "
SGLT2 inhibitors were first approved by the FDA in 2013 and are used, with diet and exercise, to lower blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes, the FDA says.
"Untreated type 2 diabetes can lead to serious problems such as blindness, nerve and kidney damage and heart disease," the FDA said.
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