Reporting adverse effects of vaccines
Vaccines are administered to healthy persons to prevent diseases. This therefore requires an extra critical attitude regarding possible adverse effects. The scale and duration of pre-authorisation ...
Recent articles
Lower target values for cholesterol after cerebral infarction or TIA
Just like patients with cardiovascular problems, patients who have had a cerebral infarction or TIA are advised to aim for LDL-cholesterol values below 1.8 mmol/L. At the time when this recommenda ...
Ballerine® copper IUD
The ‘intrauterine ball’ Ballerine®, a intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) made up of copper beads (copper surface area 300 mm2) has no proven added value over copper IUDs of first choice, such ...
Drug contamination
The media have recently reported several cases of so-called contaminated drugs. The problem concerns contamination with impurities that had arisen in the production of the active ingredient. These ...
Umbrella reviews of drugs
The number of published systematic reviews of randomised drug trials has risen rapidly in recent years. This has led to the development of ‘overviews’ of systematic reviews, known as ‘umbrella rev ...
Entresto: added value in heart failure?
The combined sacubitril/valsartan molecule (Entresto®) has been authorised in Europe since 2015 for the treatment of symptomatic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Since Entresto is con ...
Use of benzodiazepines in the Netherlands
After the opioid crisis, a new problem appears to be arising in the United States, regarding the inappropriate use of benzodiazepines. Their use has been discouraged in the Netherlands, for instan ...
Herpes zoster vaccine for older adults?
The Dutch National health Care Institute recommends including the new recombinant herpes zoster vaccine Shingrix® in the government’s national vaccination programme for adults aged 60 years, to pr ...
