Drug Reactions – A Major Cause of Death

Adverse (不良的) drug reactions may cause the deaths of over 100,000 US hospital patients each year, making them a leading cause of death nationwide, according to report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“The incidence (发生率) of serious and fatal adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in US hospital was found to be extremely high,” say researchers at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.

They carried on an analysis of 39 ADR-related studies at US hospitals over the past 30 years and defined as ADR as “any harmful, unintended, and undesired effect of a drug which occurs at doses used in humans for prevention, diagnosis, or therapy（治疗）.”

An average of 6.7% of all hospitalized patients experience an ADR every year, according to the researchers. They estimate that “in 1994, overall 2,216, 000 hospitalized patients had serious ADRs, and 106,000 had fatal ADRs.” This means that ADRs may rank as the fourth single largest cause of death in America.

And these incidence figures are probably conservative, the researchers add, since their ADR definition did not include outcomes linked to problems in drug administration, overdoses, drug abuse, and therapeutic failures.

The control of ADRs also means spending more money. One US study estimated the overall cost of treating ADRs at up to $4 billion per year.

Dr. David Bates of Brigham and women’s hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, believes that healthcare workers need to pay more attention to the problem, especially since many ADRs are easily preventable. “When a patient develops an allergy or sensitivity, it is often not recorded, ” Bates notes, “and patients receive drug to which they have known allergies or sensitivities with disturbing frequency.” He believes computerized surveillance(监视)systems－still works－in－progress at many of the nation’s hospitals－should help cut down the frequency of these types errors.

1．Researchers at the University of Toronto believe that            .

       A．ADRs have caused medical problems, though they seldom lead to death.

       B．ADRs have very often caused patients to die in Canada.

       C．ADRs have caused many deaths in America over the past 30 years.

       D．it is easy to prevent ADRs from happening.

2．According to the passage, about 7 out of 100 hospitalized patients in America           .

       A．die of ADRs each year                          B．never experience ADRs each year

       C．suffer from ADRs each year                 D．have fatal ADRs each year

3．Adverse drug reactions might include           .

       A．an allergy to a certain drug                    B．drug abuse

       C．problems in drug administration             D．therapeutic failures

4．The underlined word “conservative” in the 5th paragraph possible means          .

       A．very exact           B．too high               C．underestimated     D．too low

5．According to Dr David Bates, hospitals in America           .

       A．are not paying enough attention to possibilities of ADRs happenings

       B．have never tried to use computers to prevent ADRs from happening

       C．shouldn’t use those drugs which will cause side effects to their patients

       D．should know that many ADRs are not easily preventable

Drug Reactions – A Major Cause of Death

Adverse（不良的）drug reactions may cause the deaths of over 100,000 US hospital patients each year, making them a leading cause of death nationwide, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

 “The incidence （发生率）of serious and fatal adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in US hospital was found to be extremely high,” say researchers at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.

They carried on an analysis of 39 ADR-related studies at US hospitals over the past 30 years and defined as ADR as “any harmful, unintended, and undesired effect of a drug which occurs at doses used in humans for prevention, diagnosis, or therapy（治疗）.”

An average of 6.7% of all hospitalized patients experience an ADR every year, according to the researchers. They estimate that “in 1994, overall 2,216, 000 hospitalized patients had serious ADRs, and 106,000 had fatal ADRs.” This means that ADRs may rank as the fourth single largest cause of death in America.

And these incidence figures are probably conservative, the researchers add, since their ADR definition did not include outcomes linked to problems in drug administration, overdoses, drug abuse, and therapeutic failures.

The control of ADRs also means spending more money. One US study estimated the overall cost of treating ADRs at up to $4 billion per year.

Dr. David Bates of Brigham and women’s hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, believes that healthcare workers need to pay more attention to the problem, especially since many ADRs are easily preventable. “When a patient develops an allergy or sensitivity, it is often not recorded, ” Bates notes,” and patients receive drug to which they have known allergies or sensitivities with disturbing frequency.” He believes computerized surveillance(监视)systems–still works – in – progress at many of the nation’s hospitals – should help cut down the frequency of these types of errors.

1．Researchers at the University of Toronto believes that            .

A．ADRs have caused medical problems, though they seldom lead to death.

B．ADRs have very often caused patients to die in Canada.

C．ADRs have caused many deaths in America over the past 30 years.

D．it is easy to prevent ADRs from happening.

2．According to the passage, about 7 out of 100 hospitalized patients in America           .

       A．die of ADRs each year                          B．never experience ADRs each year

       C．suffer from ADRs each year                 D．have fatal ADRs each year

3．Adverse drug reactions might include           .

       A．an allergy to a certain drug                    B．drug abuse

       C．problems in drug administration             D．therapeutic failures

4．The underlined word “conservative” in the 5th paragraph possible means           .

       A．very exact           B．too high               C．underestimates     D．too low

5．According to Dr David Bates, hospitals in America           .

       A．are not paying enough attention to possibilities of ADRs happenings

       B．have never tried to use computers to prevent ADRs from happening

       C．shouldn’t use those drugs which will cause side effects to their patients

       D．should know that many ADRs are not easily preventable