FDA report says five Vioxx patients got meningitis

<br>(Chicago-AP) -- The government is warning of a rare but serious side effect from a popular painkiller. <br><br>The Food and Drug Administration says Vioxx has been linked to five cases of a non-bacterial

Monday, March 25th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Chicago-AP) -- The government is warning of a rare but serious side effect from a popular painkiller.

The Food and Drug Administration says Vioxx has been linked to five cases of a non-bacterial type of meningitis. The F-D-A says no one has died in any of the cases.

The company that makes the drug, Merck, downplays the report, saying it doesn't think it's cause for worry. It says 52 (m) million Vioxx prescriptions have been written in the United States since June 1999.

The report is in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine. It notes that other painkilling drugs -- including ibuprofen and naproxen -- also have been linked in rare cases to meningitis. So has Celebrex, a drug similar to Vioxx.