FDA Issues Warning on Alternative Lyme Remedy

Product known as bismacine, or chromacine, linked to one patient death

FRIDAY, July 21 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning about an injectable product known as bismacine, or chromacine, after one patient was reported to have died and others injured after using it as an alternative health treatment for Lyme disease.

The drug is not an approved product and is ordered by alternative health care providers or non-physicians and mixed individually by druggists. It contains bismuth, which can cause cardiovascular collapse or kidney problems, when used in an injectable form.

One patient died in April 2006 and another was hospitalized in March 2005, after receiving the drug. The FDA is currently investigating these and other cases associated with the treatment.

Adverse events related to the product can be reported to the FDA at www.fda.gov/MedWatch/report.htm, by phone (1-800-FDA-1088), or via a downloaded form that can be mailed to the federal agency.

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