According to two American senators, the US Defense Department ought to scrutinize the use of the blood-clotting medication Factor VII on wounded troops in Iraq.
The Associated Press reported that Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) called for the careful scrutiny after it had been revealed that the medication may have led to life-threatening clots.
In a letter to Dr William Winkenwerder Jr., Assistant Secretary of Defence for Health Affairs, Mikulski stated that the Pentagon ought to track all patients receiving Factor VII on the battlefield so as to evaluate if they are at elevated risk for blood clots and other complications. As of Thursday morning, she had not received any response.
Rightful worries concerning the medication
In interrelated news, the team of specialists dealing with hematology and blood clotting says that there are "rightful concerns" about the use of the medication on the battlefield, the Associated Press reported.
The seven researchers and physicians made the comment in an editorial they prepared for an upcoming issue of the journal Applied and Clinical Thrombosis/Hemostasis.
"Our soldiers are already in enormous danger and the availability of a lifesaving medicines like [Factor VII] is apprecited," they wrote. "It is, though, equally significant to recognize and look into the reported adverse reactions with its use in order to avoid unnecessary risk to these Army personnel."
Factor VII was initially intended to treat patients experiencing rare types of hemophilia. The American military explains that the medication gives front-line physicians a possibility to control potentially deadly bleeding in wounded troops, the Associated Press reported.
