Portugal will need as much as 90 billion euros ($129 billion), including 10 billion euros in June, under a bailout package from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, people familiar with the situation said Thursday.
Terms of the package will be discussed in more detail at an EU finance ministers' meeting in Hungary beginning Friday. A formal request for aid was submitted Thursday, a Portuguese government spokesman said.
It will take two to three weeks to work out an austerity program to accompany a bailout with the help of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the IMF, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble said Thursday.
The funds are expected to be used to cover Portugal's short-term debt obligations and cash shortfalls at public-service companies, and to repay loans made to nationalized bank Banco Portugues de Negocios.
Funds would also be set aside to cover local banks' potential capital shortfalls, according to one person familiar with the situation.
Portugal will become the third nation in the 17-member currency bloc, after Greece and Ireland, to turn to its peers for help, after concerns over the country's funding capabilities and its heavy debt burden triggered a series of downgrades in its credit ratings.
Portuguese policy makers say there is a growing consensus that a bailout would need to be structured and disbursed in several phases, coming before and after the country's June 5 elections.
The current government and the incoming administration would share the responsibility of negotiating the deal.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Can Mom's Medicine Hurt The Baby?
The list of medications that women shouldn't take in pregnancy keeps getting longer.
Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration strengthened warnings that expectant mothers who take topiramate (brand name Topamax), for migraines or to control seizures, have an increased risk of giving birth to babies with cleft lips or cleft palates.
Last month, the FDA advised doctors that babies whose mothers took antipsychotic drugs such as Haldol, Zyprexa, Seroquel and Abilify, could suffer withdrawal symptoms such as agitation and difficulty breathing and feeding for hours or days after birth. It also warned that terbutaline, an asthma drug also used to halt preterm labor, should not be used by pregnant women due to the potential for maternal heart problems or death.
Also last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that taking pain relievers containing opioids, such as Vicodin, OxyContin and Tylenol with codeine, just before or in early pregnancy increased the risk of congenital heart defects, glaucoma and other problems.
Ever since the 1960s when thalidomide, a sleep aid and morning-sickness drug, was linked to more than 10,000 babies born with missing or shrunken limbs, it has been known that medications a pregnant woman takes can cross the placenta and affect her unborn child.
But determining what the impact might be for tens of thousands of medications is a Herculean task. The labels on most medicines have little or no information on how they might affect the mother or the fetus, other than advising to check with her doctor. Physicians are often baffled too, since conclusive data on safety in pregnancy don't exist for the majority of prescription medications.
There is not much more known about the safety of over-the-counter drugs. Most experts believe that acetaminophen (Tylenol) is safe to use in all trimesters. But many advise pregnant women not to take aspirin, ibuprofen and some other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), particularly in the third trimester, due to the potential for excess bleeding and other labor complications. Meanwhile, small studies have linked pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in decongestants and other cold remedies, with a higher risk of gastroschisis, in which the baby's intestines grow outside the abdominal wall. Antacids are generally safe, although sodium bicarbonate is absorbed into the bloodstream and can raise a woman's sodium level.
There's so little safety information because it is considered unethical to expose pregnant women and unborn babies to potential risks in randomized-controlled clinical trials used to test drug safety. Yet millions of pregnant women take medications. Studies show that 64% use at least one prescription drug during pregnancy and, on average, women use three to five.
Experts agree that chronic conditions such as asthma, epilepsy, high blood pressure and depression can't go untreated for nine months without posing risks to both mothers and fetuses. For example, if a mother has a severe asthma attack or prolonged seizure, the fetus could be starved for oxygen; untreated hypertension in a mother could stunt her baby's growth or cause preterm labor.
So doctors must carefully weigh the benefits of a medication to both mother and baby against the often uncertain risk that it might interfere with fetal development. Many of the most serious medication risks occur when a baby's vital organs are forming in the first trimester, often before a women knows she's pregnant.
In some cases, mothers and doctors can opt for a substitute medication for the condition that's thought to pose less risk. There is a wide variety of antidepressants, for example, with different associated risks. The popular category called serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is generally considered safe, although some studies have linked a few of them to a higher risk of congential heart defects when taken in the first trimester, and infants suffering withdrawal symptoms such as irritability and seizures for more than a week after birth.
All this information creates some hard choices for mothers-to-be and their health-care providers. Sarah Lieberman Weisz, 36, of Chicago, who takes Wellbutrin, a category C drug for depression, talked it over with her midwife before her first pregnancy. Even though several other antidepressants are considered to be safer during pregnancy, Ms. Weisz had tried others and was reluctant to switch. They found some small-scale studies showing no adverse effects on human fetuses, and no large studies contradicting them. 'To me, that was enough. We decided that the risk of switching and suffering more depression or new side effects was greater than a possible risk to the baby,' says Ms. Weisz, who had a healthy baby boy in 21 months ago and a healthy, baby girl last month.
Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration strengthened warnings that expectant mothers who take topiramate (brand name Topamax), for migraines or to control seizures, have an increased risk of giving birth to babies with cleft lips or cleft palates.
Last month, the FDA advised doctors that babies whose mothers took antipsychotic drugs such as Haldol, Zyprexa, Seroquel and Abilify, could suffer withdrawal symptoms such as agitation and difficulty breathing and feeding for hours or days after birth. It also warned that terbutaline, an asthma drug also used to halt preterm labor, should not be used by pregnant women due to the potential for maternal heart problems or death.
Also last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that taking pain relievers containing opioids, such as Vicodin, OxyContin and Tylenol with codeine, just before or in early pregnancy increased the risk of congenital heart defects, glaucoma and other problems.
Ever since the 1960s when thalidomide, a sleep aid and morning-sickness drug, was linked to more than 10,000 babies born with missing or shrunken limbs, it has been known that medications a pregnant woman takes can cross the placenta and affect her unborn child.
But determining what the impact might be for tens of thousands of medications is a Herculean task. The labels on most medicines have little or no information on how they might affect the mother or the fetus, other than advising to check with her doctor. Physicians are often baffled too, since conclusive data on safety in pregnancy don't exist for the majority of prescription medications.
There is not much more known about the safety of over-the-counter drugs. Most experts believe that acetaminophen (Tylenol) is safe to use in all trimesters. But many advise pregnant women not to take aspirin, ibuprofen and some other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), particularly in the third trimester, due to the potential for excess bleeding and other labor complications. Meanwhile, small studies have linked pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in decongestants and other cold remedies, with a higher risk of gastroschisis, in which the baby's intestines grow outside the abdominal wall. Antacids are generally safe, although sodium bicarbonate is absorbed into the bloodstream and can raise a woman's sodium level.
There's so little safety information because it is considered unethical to expose pregnant women and unborn babies to potential risks in randomized-controlled clinical trials used to test drug safety. Yet millions of pregnant women take medications. Studies show that 64% use at least one prescription drug during pregnancy and, on average, women use three to five.
Experts agree that chronic conditions such as asthma, epilepsy, high blood pressure and depression can't go untreated for nine months without posing risks to both mothers and fetuses. For example, if a mother has a severe asthma attack or prolonged seizure, the fetus could be starved for oxygen; untreated hypertension in a mother could stunt her baby's growth or cause preterm labor.
So doctors must carefully weigh the benefits of a medication to both mother and baby against the often uncertain risk that it might interfere with fetal development. Many of the most serious medication risks occur when a baby's vital organs are forming in the first trimester, often before a women knows she's pregnant.
In some cases, mothers and doctors can opt for a substitute medication for the condition that's thought to pose less risk. There is a wide variety of antidepressants, for example, with different associated risks. The popular category called serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is generally considered safe, although some studies have linked a few of them to a higher risk of congential heart defects when taken in the first trimester, and infants suffering withdrawal symptoms such as irritability and seizures for more than a week after birth.
All this information creates some hard choices for mothers-to-be and their health-care providers. Sarah Lieberman Weisz, 36, of Chicago, who takes Wellbutrin, a category C drug for depression, talked it over with her midwife before her first pregnancy. Even though several other antidepressants are considered to be safer during pregnancy, Ms. Weisz had tried others and was reluctant to switch. They found some small-scale studies showing no adverse effects on human fetuses, and no large studies contradicting them. 'To me, that was enough. We decided that the risk of switching and suffering more depression or new side effects was greater than a possible risk to the baby,' says Ms. Weisz, who had a healthy baby boy in 21 months ago and a healthy, baby girl last month.
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