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COPYRIGHT 2000 Copyright by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All Rights Reserved
When the first effective pill for male impotence reached the marketplace in 1999, the roller-coaster ride began. First, there was the predictable rash of jokes and publicity for the pill, known as Viagra. Then came surging sales as many of the 30 million men who have what is known medically as "erectile dysfunction" sought prescriptions from their doctors (or over the Internet). Shortly thereafter came the first reports of deaths (from heart attack or cardiac arrest) of men who had just used Viagra.
Many of these deaths occurred among men who had somehow overlooked the strong warnings from the drug's manufacturer (Pfizer, Inc.) stating that Viagra must not be combined with nitroglycerin. These tragedies followed a typical scenario: a man takes Viagra, gets chest pain, and takes nitroglycerin to relieve his symptoms. Combining Viagra and nitroglycerin can produce a life-threatening drop in blood pressure that is very...
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