Toxic Shock and Product Safety

A Rare Illness on the Increase.

"It even absorbs the worry," proclaimed Procter & Gamble when it first distributed its tampon products. But decades later in 1980, Procter & Gamble had plenty of worries. After 344 cases of a rare and baffling illness were reported in 1980, the Centers for Disease Control linked women's use of tampons to an outbreak of a rare, sometimes fatal, toxic shock syndrome. One study of a group of sufferers discovered that 71 percent of them had used Procter & Gamble's Rely tampons. Procter & Gamble ordered a recall of its tampons and soon found itself in court.

Toxic Shock Syndrome.

Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a severe, systemic illness associated with infection by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. The CDC's findings indicated it occurred most commonly in menstruating women who used tampons—about 75 percent of TSS victims—although it also occurred in children, men, and...

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